[ns_jughead]

About 7 months back my best frnds brother(aged -22) had an accident.He was a very gud driver and never drove without a helmet.But on that fateful day ,since he had to go to place which was 5 minutes away,he didnt wear the helmet.Nobody knoes wat happened...mayb his scooty skidded...he was struck by sumone..no one knoes.One side of his skull was totally smashed.Docs gave him a 10% chance of survival.But fortunately he pulled thru.He recovered a bit,but a failed skull grafting operation brought him back to square one.Hes now lyin in hospital in a completely vegetative state.He can only communicate by closing his eyelids.Hes had five operations on his brain already.Docs say that he will recover,but to wat extent and when...is anybodys guess.I went to c him a couple of daze ago.The mere sight of him lying there like an inanimate object brought tears to my eyes.But the gud thing is that he recognised me even thought we were meetin after 2 years.
His parents hav sacrificed a lot for him.Throughout the day his mom takes care of him and at night his dad comes back from office and takes over.He ha s to be turned every 2 hrs so that he doesnt get bed sores...The whole family has suffered a lot..... especially his mom....Jus imagine havin ur son lie infront of u...not knoein whether hes in pain,whether hes hungry...For the past few months she spends every day tryin to make him say "mummy"

U might be wondering why i've gone into such detail.Its bcuz i want u to know that ur being careless for a moment,can completely destroy,not only ur life,but also ur parents life.If u dont care for urself,atleast think about ur parents who've brought u up with so much luv and affection.So please please please ,never drive without a helmet or for that matter a seatbelt,even if u r goin to a nearby place..When disaster has to strike , it doesnt see whether ur destination is 5 minutes away or 50 minutes away

I really hope my words do make a difference.

P.S--each and everyone of u...pls send in a prayer for the guy whos lyin in hospital.Ur prayers are important for his recovery

[jango]

Helmets are really important. I always use one when i ride my bike !!!.We need to be responsible riders !!!

[aZa]

This is really sad, brought tears to my eyes just reading it. jughead my best wishes to your friend and his family, i'll pray for his health!!

[nikibusa]

Well i would second ns_jughead.Cause even i happened to go for a smoke once without ma helmet which is at a distance and met with an accident.Well lucky me for i broke only my tooth.So please for heavens wear a helmet whatever the distance might be.

Niki.

[Shrikar]

this was a really sentimental post and yeah i did put in a lil prayer for your friend......really hope he gets better someday....small mistakes can make you pay so much...damn

all bike riders please wear helmets....its a small lil thing that can save your life!!!!

[directinjection]

Here's hoping and praying that your friend recovers well and fast.

Indians are generally careless with safety issues, whether it is wearing helmets and seat belts, stopping at traffic lights, or using mobile phones while driving. If at all safety norms are observed, it is out of fear of being challaned rather than voluntary observance. Tragedy is, even a lot of educated people exhibit callousness. Some guys even consider it non-masculine to observe safety norms.

The Government, NGOs and even the corporate world (especially auto companies) should spend a lot more money and effort on publicity campaigns highlighting auto safety. I remember Maruti used to have a campaign sometime back regarding shunning drinking while driving.

[Mistakenguy]

I have put in my prayers and am gonna make sure that i wear a helmet every time i take my bike. May he recover fast and may god give him the strength to fighthis illness .

[turbo_v12]

My prayers for your friend's brother too...

[revtech]

I pray to God that he recovers soon.yes a helmet, just like seat belts saves lives.

[deepakhon]

I sincerely pray that your friend's bro gets well soon. This is a very touching incident that you have narrated.

I would like to add one incident which I saw last week. Myself, my wife, my daughter and my dad were on a trip to Chickamagalur from Bangalore. While coming back from Ckm, we decided we will see Belur and Halebid temples. After visiting Halebid, we were on our way to Hassan. On that small road, we saw an accident involving two bikes. On one bike, there were three people and on another, there was one man. Ofcourse, none of them were wearing any helmets. The bike which had three people on it apparently came in the wrong direction in a turn and the other bike guy who was riding in the opposite direction did not see them until the last moment. There was a head-on and the bike with three people went skidding down the road and the guy who was driving it went and hit a sharp stone. There was a huge amount of blood flowing from his head where he had a huge cut, huge enough to cover his entire head. He was totally unconcious. Another guy on that same bike had also fallen down and had multiple bruises, one even on his head, but this guy was lot better than the first guy. We came to the scene of the accident just minutes after it happened. My dad was a doc (he is not practicing now). We stopped our vehicle and my dad had a look at both of the injured people. According to him, the guy who had a huge cut on his head was very severly injured and the chances of him coming back alive out of this incident were very grim. As usual, there was a huge crowd which collected there. We thought we will take them in our car to Hassan. By that time, a state Govt bus which was going to Hassan arrived on the scene. People who had gathered there managed to coax the driver into taking both of them to Hassan. The bus then took both of them. It took me around 10-15 minutes to recover from this incident and I could drive only after so long.

I can guarantee that if the guy who was in a very serious condition was wearing a helmet, he could just have picked up the bike and could have driven home happily without any head injury.

Just an hour back, during our drive, we were discussing about people in small towns who do all bravado on their two wheelers and never wear a helmet. My prayers are with both of the injured guys. They were drunk, were driving in the wrong direction in a turn on the highway, had overloaded their bike with three people, were not wearing helmets. But still, a life is a life. I pray that they live and learn from this experience.

[naveendhyani]

Please follow the traffic rules! No matter what it says, they are for our benefit only though I m sure most of the fellow BHPians follow rules.

Its out duty to make sure that the incident which happened to jughead's aquaintence must not happen to ny of our near and dear ones.

Praying for his early recovery.

[normally_crazy]

Jughead - sorry to hear about your friends bro - hope that he recovers completely . Must be damn hard on his family.

OFFTOPIC - Im sorry if I sound pessimestic to you but this will hardly make a difference to anyone. People will continue to flout rules and our govt and cops wil support it. Its not about following rules or anything like that - its only about if we can throw out the ROT thats settled in us and about using that little bit of common sense that GOD has given each human being.

[adya33]

Wishing your friends brother a speedy recovery.

[manson]

hope your friend's family comes through all this fine, pray for his speedy recovery.

manson.

[autozealot]

May God be with the boy & his family and help them come out of such sad circumstances in life. Prayers will bring light one fine day.
Hope for the best.

For us guyz, a little thankyou prayer to God for keeping us safe and a vow that we will always put in our best efforts to adhere to safe & responsible driving/ riding.


az