IRF | International Road Federation

Two-day WHO international workshop on road safety begins

“The people, who help road accident victims on the spot, will be honoured as Good Samaritans,” said Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Laxmi Kanta Chawla in Mohali on Monday.

She was addressing the gathering after inaugurating a two-day international workshop on road safety organised by World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with consortium of four international organisations, including World Bank, at State Institute of Health and Family Welfare in Phase VI here.

The minister said to encourage the public to help the accident victims, appreciation letters would be issued to those, who come to the rescue of injured persons in road accidents.

“There is a general tendency among the public regarding not helping victims of road accidents due to fear of uninvited legal hurdles,” Chawla maintained, while underlining the importance of help given to accident victims during the first hour, which is termed as golden hour. She exhorted the departments and authorities concerned to take positive steps to motivate people to extend the best possible help in case of such eventualities.

Suggesting ways and means to avoid road accidents, the minister recommended shifting of liquor vends from the highways, which she felt were most hazardous. Stressing the need to discourage drunken driving, Chawla also wanted that overloaded trucks and other vehicles should not be allowed to ply as they were one of the major reasons for causing the accidents.

Also emphasising on effective trauma management, the minister claimed that the state government was making efforts to provide requisite trauma facilities on the highways.

Punjab Health Systems Corporation, Managing Director, Raji P Srivastava welcomed the 50 delegates, including 20 foreign delegates from 5 consortium partners of the project, attending the workshop. She informed that the five-year Road Safety-10 project was funded by consortium partners.

Union government’s representative Dr HC Goyal laid stress on effective healthcare facilities and advanced trauma care units along the highways. He said medical care immediately after the accidents was crucial and hence hospitals on highways must be well equipped with ambulances, ICU, staff, blood bank and other essential equipment. He emphasized upon more training programmes for medical officers for handling trauma patients.

Director, Health (Family Welfare), Punjab-cum-Organizing Secretary of Road Safety-10, Dr Ashok Nayyar informed that ten nations across the globe, including India, are part of this RS-10 project and only two states — Punjab and Andhra Pradesh — are its members.

This international meet was held to discuss the issues regarding road infrastructure, trauma and data management besides analysing the gravity of problem and devising ways and means to form guidelines for its solution.

The event was followed with brainstorming sessions and multimedia presentations by member delegates and representatives from WHO and World Bank.

Punjab IGP (Traffic) RP Singh, WHO representatives Dr JS Thakur, Tamitza Toroyan,Chandigarh GMCH-32 head Prof Raj Bahadur, National Highway Authority of India officials RK Kaushal and Jaswinder Singh, Indian Medical Association, Punjab Chapter, senior officers Dr RS Raman and Dr DS Bhullar were prominent among the participating delegates.