Kolkata Police has empowered sergeants to create green channels over a short distance to transport accident victims to nearby hospitals. The first trial run happened in the wee hours of Monday when a traffic sergeant at the Metropolitan signal on EM Bypass allowed two bank executives to take two accident victims to nearby Apollo hospital — a distance of about three kilometres.
“We have instructed our officers that ambulances and accident victims should be treated with top priority to ensure they reach hospitals on time and that the officers can create green channels within the traffic guard area without waiting for the headquarters’ nod,” said a senior officer of Kolkata traffic police.
The idea behind the move is to encourage citizens to rush accident victims to trauma care units using green channels even as cops arrange for two things — admission at hospital without formalities and permission to leave without recording of statements at the spot.
Two good Samaritans, who took the pain of admitting two seriously injured people to a city hospital after an accident on the EM Bypass on Monday, took to Facebook to narrate their experience in what they said would serve two purposes — educate citizens to trust cops and eliminate the fear of helping out accident victims.
Souvik Dasgupta and his colleague Arindam Mitra — both working with the Aditya Birla Group — were travelling in an Ola from Bhowanipore to Ganga Nagar in the wee hours of Monday.
“Near Metropolitan signal, another app cab that was travelling in high speed banged into a truck. The front portion of the cab was smashed. We stopped our car and got out of it. The driver of the car as well as the passenger were severely injured,” wrote Souvik.
“Santanu Paul was the traffic sergeant, who pro-actively took charge of the situation and helped us get both the injured persons out of the car. Wasting no time, Paul immediately asked for the trauma care unit of KP to report to the spot. But since we were also travelling in a car, we asked him if we can carry both the injured persons to a nearby hospital. Paul agreed and immediately asked for a green corridor from Metropolitan to Bypass Apollo. He also informed us to take the patients directly to emergency and told that representatives from local police station and traffic guard will reach there to help us. It took us a couple of minutes to reach the hospital. On reaching there, we found that inspectors from local Phoolbagan police station and traffic guard were present there and they helped us get the patients admitted to emergency without any formalities,” he added.
“Till the time we left the hospital premises, doctors were treating both of them and their friends and relatives had already arrived. We were overwhelmed by the way Kolkata Police helped us in such a challenging situation,” wrote Sauvik. DC (traffic) Sumit Kumar thanked the duo and the driver of the app cab in which they were travelling. “It’s this cooperation which we are seeking,” he said.
Source: Times of India
