[amit]

Mid-Day reports on this incident where a 25 yr old guy was hit by a train and died on the tracks as no one helped him. Few things regarding this incident that disturb me are:

Eight trains passed, but none of the motormen informed the police or stationmaster of nearby stations.

We waved red flags but none of the motormen stopped.

Even the commuters didn’t make an effort to take him to hospital

And this one really is shocking:

Central Railway does not have hi-tech facilities to inform the police. Here, motormen have to blow their horn thrice to indicate an emergency.

The "its not happening to me so why bother" attitude of our train commuters is reaching frustrating levels. Notable incidents in the past:

1. Jaybala Ashar who alone tried to fight off a thief while other ladies in the ladies compartment kept watching her struggle with the robber. Ultimately she was thrown out of the train and lost both her legs.

2. The rape of a minor girl on board a train on August 14 few years back. The rape happened in front of a few people including women and no one did anything.

Similar incidents happen on our roads where injured people lie dying and no one helps. Few years back there was a incident reported in the papers where a woman was hit by a car on Sion-Trombay road just after the flyover over the Chunabhatti tracks. No vehicle stopped and worse, a number of vehicles drove over her body until she died. I remember the report saying the doctors had to remove her clothes to see if the dead person was a man or woman, thats how badly mangled the body was from all the vehicles running over her.

Question is Why are we so callous when it comes to suffereing of fellow Indians?

Mods, didn't want to start a new topic on this incident but the report really disturbed me and I don't think we have a smilar topic like this. If we do, please merge them.

Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : This topic has been moved to the appropriate section.

We thank you for your thread, and would appreciate you taking the effort to post in the correct section.

[carfreak]

hi amit,many a times even i have asked myself the same question-why we in india dont have even the slightest respect for a human life?why are we so indifferent?i have some doubts as to why this attitude could be due to.they are-
1 our population!!!we have so many people inhabiting our country that we feel its not that important to help someone who is dying-rather our sub-conscious feels that its better for our country and indirectly for our own self if someone dies and creates more room for us.we dont have any feeling for a human suffering.the intense population has created a situation where everyone looks after his/her own needs and only that
2 our legal system??if we see an accident victim on the road,take him to hospital and if a police case is filed we have to appear in court etc etc.in short just because we went to help the law may point a finger at us or we may have to go through un-necessary headaches because of a helping hand we gave
these are just few of my explanations for our indifferent attitudes

[vivekiny2k]

don't forget the trouble coming from victim's/spectsators' side.
a major deterrent in helping others.

[amit]

don't forget the trouble coming from victim's/spectsators' side.

but thats in the case of road accidents. What about other incidents? Like the one mentioned here?

Also when the mob collects, why are they more interested in hammering the driver or stoning or burning the car or truck? Shouldn't they first take the victim to the hospita? Even the victims friends or relatives seem more interested in hammering others then in taking their so called loved one to the hospital! No use sitting on the road beating your chest crying out loud "mere bete ko maar daala re!" even though he may still be alive with a fracture or something. Get to the damn hospital first! It's true whats said : Common sense is not so common.

[khanak]

Originally Posted by amit

No use sitting on the road beating your chest crying out loud "mere bete ko maar daala re!" even though he may still be alive with a fracture or something. Get to the damn hospital first! It's true whats said : Common sense is not so common.

wht ur saying is true but you also have to remember that these are times when emotions run high and we are not always able to do the smartest thing.not just in india but all over the world....cmon man...... nd as for trains..there was an article in bombay times a few years ago about how many people die on railway tracks........while one does get hurt by these incidents one has to also realize that we have to blame ourselves for it........ ppl cross tracks and often do not take the overbridge to save time (i do it) nd are often very careless with their own lives.........the railways have done a lot to prevent this but ppl still continue to do so......nothing can be done about it until we act responsibly ourselves..... as for the incidents you mentioned in your post it can happen anywhere in the world.remember violence and gun crimes are quite frequent in the US...atal bihari vajpayees nephew was thrown off a train and killed when he tried to protect a lady who was being harassed by ppl on a train

[satish_appasani]

Sometimes I think whether this country is going to be a nice place for my kids and the next generations.

Though this is not the right thread, felt like posting here.
Few years back when the local MMTS trains started in Hyd, the train went over a buffalo on the very first day of the launch and an old man one or two days later. There was hell lot of bull *** all over. People and media blamed the train drivers are not watching people crossing the track. Even our silly politicians joined this group. It's only after South Center Railway gave a strong statement that the tracks are their property and crossing them is tress passing did things cool down.

[amit]

Hey Khanak I agree with what you say but this is not about why accidents happen. Sure people who cross railway tracks are at fault just like people who cross highways when pedestrain signals are red and I am sure accidents happen even in western countries but very rarely you will hear about people hammering the driver of the car or truck. In India it happens in every accident and thats where the difference lies. If it happens once, we can say emotions ran high but when it happens every time including when the accident is a small one and the victim has a few bruises then it's not emotions running high.

atal bihari vajpayees nephew was thrown off a train and killed when he tried to protect a lady who was being harassed by ppl on a train

So where did the mob culture disappear at that time? People were being hammered and ladies were being harassed and teased but the "mob" of approx 40 people sat quiet because the 5 dacoits had choppers and knives. Why couldn't they get together then and hammer the daylights out of those dacoits? Or does the mob culture conviniantly happen only when these people know that the person concerned doesn't have a weapon and is alone at their mercy? Same thing happened when that minor girl was raped in a local train. The guy who raped her was drunk and I believe the 7 people on board the train were enough to prevent a drunkard from doing that act. Where did the mob culture go then?

[jat]

Very simple.

In the countries where goverment is selfish and education is the least important thing on goverment agenda, human life has least value. And people don't want to follow simple rules.

And that includes India (along with many African countires where is population density is very low). See the countries with high population density (say Japan).

[islero]

Damn!!!! That is so awful!!!! Makes me really sad.......

[nitinbhag]

As Douglas Adams defined it, anything is SEP (somebody else's problem) till it happens to you..
Fact is human life is cheap in India.. Has to be, we are 1.1 billion.. Safety is unheard of, whether it is roads, trains, construction, etc..