Ambulance with a siren must always go first

Reacting to Bangalore Mirror’s front page story on Wednesday, police say ambulance was allowed to go as soon as CM’s convoy passed. Nobody died, they reasonedHere’s a question for you. What is more important than a human life? The answer: A VIP convoy, apparently. After all, what else can one deduce from the fact that an ambulance rushing to Nimhans with a patient was held up for 10 minutes in the city’s outskirts just so the chief minister’s convoy could pass?After a video on this went viral online, Mirror spoke with the 108 ambulance service operator – it confirmed that the vehicle was stopped for 10 minutes. We also spoke with the police who claimed they halted the ambulance only for “3-4 minutes”.But what one is left to wonder from the incident, and the responses, thereafter, is: why couldn’t the CM wait for the ambulance to pass first? A video footage uploaded on Facebook a few days ago on the incident had gone viral. The text with the video had claimed that a woman was being rushed to a hospital in an ambulance on June 25 when it was halted, along with the rest of the traffic, to let the Chief Minister’s convoy pass. It claimed that the woman’s son had pleaded with the cops to be allowed to pass, but was ignored. Because of the delay, the post claimed, the woman had died.Mirror checked with GVK Emergency Management and Research Institute (EMRI), which runs the 108 ambulance service in the state. It confirmed that the ambulance was held up for 10 minutes on June 25.However, it clarified that it was a man who had had a bike accident in Kolar, who was being rushed to Nimhans. And he had survived.SS Perveez, spokesperson, GVK EMRI-Karnataka, said: “The 108 ambulance was carrying a male patient, Naveen Kumar, who suffered a fracture after a road traffic accident in Kolar at around 8.50 pm near Hoskote.”“When the ambulance was stranded, our pilot got down and requested the policemen to let him go as there was a patient inside. But there were close to four vehicles in front of the ambulance and the policemen apparently told the pilot that if he lets them go, then they have to let all those vehicles go too. Finally after 10 minutes, the ambulance was allowed to pass,” Perveez said.Naveen Kumar (38), we were told by his relative Raghvendra, fell off the bike after being chased by dogs. Local hospitals asked them to go to Nimhans in Bengaluru because they suspected a head injury. The ambulance was stuck for a while near Hoskote after which we was taken to Nimhans. “Once they ruled out head injury, we got him to Hosmat Hospital in the city,” said Raghvendra.Dr Ajith Benedict Royan, medical director at Hosmat Hospital, said Naveen had suffered severe facial fracture and aberrations on his arms. He was operated upon and discharged on Wednesday.Mirror spoke with the inspector general of police (central range), Seemanth Kumar Singh, to get their side of the story. Explaining the video, Singh claimed that the ambulance was stopped for no more than three or four minutes. “This happened on the way. On the left side, we can see in the video the convoy is moving very fast, and on the right side the vehicles were stopped (including the ambulance) hardly for three to four minutes and then allowed to go. [The ambulance] reached Hosmat Hospital by 9.30 pm and today evening that person is okay and being discharged (sic),” Singh told Mirror on Wednesday.According to Singh, the policemen who had halted the traffic were not requested by the ambulance driver, paramedic or the attendant to let the patient pass. “If they had told that this is an emergency case, then we would have allowed it, but there was no request from the driver or attendant,” he said. He also dismissed as rumours the claims that it was a woman inside the ambulance. “The police has instructions to allow the ambulance to pass first and there was no forcible stopping or violation. One has to verify and upload such videos, not spread rumours,” he said.No one can stop an ambulance — that is a universally acknowledged fact, said Shyam Sundar, a High Court advocate. “The guidelines are issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO),” he said. There cannot be a hindrance to an ambulance service — even if it’s the president of America or the prime minister of India, he said. The lights and the siren themselves are a request for way and there should be no need for any more persuasion from the driver or paramedic. If the driver and his team feel it is not an emergency and decide to switch off the lights and siren, they can travel at their own pace — but only then. However, an ambulance can only be stopped if there is a tip-off on an unlawful activity inside, or if it is being misused. The police can stop and finish checking within a couple of minutes and allow the ambulance to pass, he explained.