New Delhi: Govt Hospitals ordered to make public, photos of unidentified accident victims

New Delhi: The Government of Delhi (Health Department) along with the Union Ministry of health have recently passed an order directing all government hospitals to publicly display the photographs of unidentified victims of accidents who are brought dead to hospitals or die during treatment.

This comes after the direction of the Motor Accident Claims Tribunal (MACT) in its court order last month.  This order was made in the road accident case of a Ajeet singh who was Critically injured in a bike accident near the Shadipur Metro station in a road accident, Ajeet Singh was taken to Acharya Bhikshu hospital on November 20, 2014, in a CATS ambulance. After a few days, he was then transferred to Safdarjung hospital on 5th December, 2014 for further treatment, but finally succumbed to his injuries on 13th December, 2014. During this entire ordeal, no attendant was available, as the family was not even aware despite running pillar to post in search of the deceased and accident having taken place in the nearby vicinity.

The brother the deceased informed that they had only come to know about his death few hours before the post-mortem took place, and that they had been running fruitlessly across police stations trying to find particulars about the deceased.

The court pointed out that such incidents are not uncommon, wherein the police and the hospital administration remain clueless due to insensitivity and lack of efforts and proper coordination  by the investigating agencies. 

Therefore to speed up the chances of identifying victims, the court has ordered that both the hospitals as well as Delhi Police have to display the pictures of unidentified accident victims on their respective websites within 24 hours of the accident.

"The same shall be of considerable aid to the victims as well as the traumatized family members and may enable to save some precious lives", the order said