RailEnquiry

MUMBAI: The Bombay high court on Tuesday directed the railways to consider setting up emergency medical centres at all local train stations (on both Central and Western lines) where more than 100 accidents took place last year.The court was hearing a PIL by activist Sameer Zaveri, whose counsel J P Cama said that a "trauma care centre" at Dadar station, set up as a pilot project after an April 2011 HC directive, was successful and many lives had been saved. "We want to extend it to other stations as well. The railways owes it to the public," said Cama.The judges—Chief Justice Mohit Shah and Justice Anoop Mohta—asked the railways' lawyers why the Dadar model could not be replicated elsewhere. CR advocate A N Samant said a policy decision would have to be taken. "There is no trauma centre at Dadar, but an emergency medical centre," he clarified.WR's advocate Suresh Kumar said that as per policy, where the distance of an accident spot was more than 5 km from a station, the victim had to be taken to the nearest private hospital and shifted to a government hospital once his condition stabilises. "We have an arrangement with private hospitals on monthly contract; the bill is paid by the railways. These accidents are so severe that it is not possible to give treatment immediately and therefore they have to be shifted to a hospital."

Cama said what was needed was trauma care at stations. "Giving a band-aid is not first-aid. How do you treat with a (first-aid) box?" He said there had to be a facility where a detached limb could be wrapped and sent for reattachment. "What do they shift? Dead bodies?" He said a time lapse could prove fatal. Justice Shah agreed, saying, "In Mumbai, sometimes it takes 30 minutes to travel on a 1.5-km stretch."

The judges said the statistics (obtained by Zaveri under the Right to Information Act) show that a large number of commuters had fallen from moving trains. Disputing the figures, Samant said, "They are of drug addicts."

The judges in their order said that prima facie, a clear case was made out for Dadar-like medical centres. They directed that these be set up "at all railway stations wherever more than 100 accidents have taken place as per the chart obtained under the RTI Act". They also directed the railways to submit at the next hearing (April 16) a report stating at which stations the emergency medical centres would be set up.