Monday, December 18, 2006

a day in the life of the average lankan bus passenger

This morning the bus in front of me, calmly and quietly ran over one if its intended passengers in one of those quiet desperate early morning scuffles , in front of the Maradana halt. I saw a crowd, saw the looks on their faces and as we moved off I saw a half view of someone lying on the ground with his legs broken and his lunch packet scattered around.
That was the saddest part, the lunch packet, some caring mother or wife must have woken early to prepare, the fact that we live in such a rat race that it becomes a part of daily life that you get quietly maimed on your way to work. The fact that in spite of having to dodge prados and jaguars and mercedeses all over the streets of Colombo , we are so poor that we need to pack people in till they fall off and die.
The fact that this is preventable.

It also brings me to the question – what do you do in such a situation ? the already mangled victim is at the mercy of the well meaning efforts of a bunch of o level educated clerks and carpenters from the looks of it – and bad to worse things can happen when you take a casualty like this and fold him in four to get him into a tuk tuk and send it off to the General Hospital (which is something I saw done to a bike accident victim) ….is there at least a National strategy on educating people on basic first aid? is it taught in schools? Is it given sufficient emphasis? Leave aside the clerical class worker population of Colombo , do you and I know what to do in a life and death situation ? or is it left for National Safety Day ?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

unfortunately i think most people would crowd around just to pass the time of day...and hav a story to tell others..a comittment to helping the injured guy comes second...speaking of stories...u kno the level of time and commitment ppl make for gossipin dont ya :) hilarious yet only too human..

Anonymous said...

did they get the bus driver?

Anonymous said...

Sri Lanka is a primitive nation, can not expect anything better. I hope no one pick the poor fellow’s pocket.
Greatness of a nation does not reflect by its wealth, but kindness to the needed.

Anonymous said...

sadly too few people are aware of the trauma hotline 110 which is supposed to get an ambulence with trained paramedics to the scene in double quick time... but only if you get run over in the colombo municipality area. I wonder if the hotline's still functioning...

Anonymous said...

Don't be upset.This is Sri Lanka.

Anonymous said...

riiiight. so would it be ok to be upset if this was the USA then? or do you mean that people are now required to have a country-selective upset switch? idiot.

(apologies for yelling at people on your site)