India's Good Samaritan Law was passed as a Bill by the Supreme court of India on March 30, 2016 and gave the "Force of Law" to the guidelines for the protection of Good Samaritans and then issued by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways. In the consecutive months, the state governments have passed GO. Later, it was included in the draft of Motor Vehicle Act 2019. Also issued were operating procedures for Good Samaritans. Important points stated are
Police should not involve the Good Samaritans for investigation.
Hospitals should not refuse to treat the accident victims and should not charge for First Aid.
Good Samaritans should be protected from civil and criminal liability.
Good Samaritans need not reveal their identity.
Good Samaritans can choose to be an eye witness, and should not be compelled otherwise.
Background
India is the second largest country in the world after China to lose more number of lives in road accidents. As per the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways statistics. 1317 crashes and 413 deaths everyday or 55 crashes and 17 deaths every hour happen due to road crashes in India. More than 50% accident victims die because they don't receive medical attention during the Golden Hour. In reality, by standers don't often come to help the accident victims, fearing legal intervention. Good Samaritan laws exist in many countries to provide legal protection to bystanders who assist accident victims.
Awareness and Impact
To educate the public on issues of concern either nationally or globally, a day is required where a multitude of individuals from all walks of life get involved, in a way or another and hence for the same reason, 30th March 2020 was first celebrated as Good Samaritan Law Day in India by Thozhan, an NGO based in Chennai. Thozhan have been working on various activities like environmental conservation, coastal cleanups, leadership development, community empowerment, etc. from 2007 across Tamil Nadu. Of these activities, road safety was being concentrated extensively from 2013 in the aim of transforming our country as an "Accident Free Nation" where they conduct "Traffic Awareness Campaigns" in public places such as live traffic signals, parks, beaches, etc. every week where their volunteers holding awareness placards & banners interact and remind commuters about the importance of following traffic rules and safety gears. And special campaigns happen during Road Safety Week and other national days of importance by doing cosplay to promote road safety in public places. Few of the major activities done by them for educating the importance of road safety are conducting Traffic Awareness Campaign in 100 signals at same day and same time by involving thousands of youngsters from various volunteering organizations, student groups and public in 2014,2015,2016 and foot board awareness for public commuters across Chennai in 67 bus stops which is a step to prevent accidents from happening. In the year 2017, 2018, 2019, mega awareness drive was carried out in public parks to create awareness about Good Samaritan Law and Golden Hour first aid training in more than 75 public parks respectively at the same day and same time by the volunteers certified by GVK EMRI. During the First Good Samaritan Law Day, they educated and created awareness about this law through online campaign where more than 500 volunteers and public pledged to be a Good Samaritans and also taught their family members about the Good Samaritan Law. They organised virtual pledging through google sheets, video & audio forms in order to reach out the public during the Covid19lock down. This was followed by giving representation to the State and Central Government authorities to announce this day officially.
