‘Mrityunjay Doot’ to come to aid of highway victims across Maharashtra | Nagpur News – Times of India

NAGPUR: The state highway traffic police are roping in volunteers to act as first responders during accidents to bring down death rates by 30-40% from the existing 1,000 on an average annually. These first responders are expected to be more active around 376 black spots on the 7,247km of the highways in Vidarbha, Nanded and Hingoli.
Based on the concept of ‘Good Samaritan’ of the ministry of road transport and highways, Addl DG, state highway traffic, BK Upadhyay is set to launch ‘Mrityunjay Doot’ along highways. The volunteers would also double up as crime stoppers across Maharashtra from March 1. Volunteers would be groomed in handling accident victims.
Upadhyay said 40-50% of deaths in road accidents take place due to non-availability of medical assistance in the ‘golden hour’. “Apart from rushing victims to hospitals, we also need to train them how to handle the injured too, like administering first aid, carrying victims on stretchers and not making common mistakes like offering water to victims which aggravates their condition,” he said. Upadhyay also said that stretchers too would be given to volunteers. “The state highway traffic personnel would be interacting with the local network of the volunteers on a regular basis,’ he said.
Upadhyay added that volunteers would also try to intervene in a crime incident as it’s also in the mandate of the state highway traffic. “We will also take the help of the local ‘Mrityunjay Doots’ to eradicate the black spots as they are more knowledgeable and have practical experience about the topography, road conditions and the accident record of a place,” said Upadhyay, stating that the entire scheme would be nothing but a well-oiled network of volunteers, ambulance services, hospitals and local officials of police stations and other departments.
“We may not be able to reduce accidents but we would certainly bring back an injured person from the jaws of deaths by helping the victim with prompt and proper medical assistance,’ said the Addl DG.
According to Dy SP Sanjay Pande, state highway traffic police, such measures to rush victims to hospitals had drastically brought down the number of accidents in Tamil Nadu too. “We are aiming to bring down the death rate from 1,029 in 2020,” he said.