BENGALURU: The state has shown the way with the Good Samaritan law, but unfortunately it did not spur the public to save an accident victim on Wednesday night. The 35-year-old pedestrian, who was knocked down by a Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus on the Nelamangala highway, lay there bleeding for about 45 minutes and could have been saved if only the onlookers had rushed him to a hospital during the ‘golden hour’ period.
Although the law gives protection and rids anyone who helps an accident victim from carrying out formalities required by the police, none came to the victim’s rescue, Suresh V, a truck driver from Gundlupet near Mysuru, who lay profusely bleeding on the highway and cried for help.
The incident happened at 9.15 pm.
When the police who rushed to the spot called for an ambulance, it reached there only at around 10 pm. Suresh, who had lost most part of the ‘golden hour’ hoping someone would help him, died at Nelamangala Government Hospital at about 11 pm.
The Nelamangala traffic police said that Suresh lay there with his hands and head severely injured. But no one rushed to his aid as it was a highway, they added. They said the bus, coming from Pavagada to Bengaluru, knocked Suresh down in front of Prince Dhaba on NH 4 (Bengaluru-Pune highway) near Kuluvanahalli. Suresh had parked his bike on the far side of the dhaba. He then crossed the highway to have tea at the eatery and was returning to his bike when he was hit by the bus.
The bus driver and the conductor ran away from the scene after stopping the bus. Seven bus passengers did not help Suresh, instead preferred to remain seated inside the bus (KA 06 F1213).
Sundar, a worker at dhaba, alerted the police, while the ambulance reached the spot only by 10pm to take Suresh to Nelamangala Government Hospital. The workers at the dhaba did not realise what had happened.
When the bus driver along with conductor ran away from the scene, they rushed to see what happened and heard Suresh screaming for help.The police feel that the bus driver may not have noticed Suresh as it was night.Suresh was married six years ago to Chaitra, and the couple has a three-year-old son.The police said the bus driver’s details are yet to be ascertained. “We have asked KSRTC officials to gather his details and whereabouts. The arrest will be made soon,” a police officer investigating the case said.
Chaitra has filed a case with the police and Suresh’s body was handed over to the family after a postmortem examination. On July 1 this year, another youth, Siddu Hugar (25), a KSRTC security staffer, lay bleeding and writhing in pain on the Mysore Road flyover after a tractor knocked his bike down.
Instead of rushing him to a hospital or calling for an ambulance, insensitive passers-by chose to take to their mobile phones to record the bleeding victim, who later died at a hospital.