Accident

The hospital fire in Kolkata and next steps – any lasting effects ?

True learning from a disaster means that steps are taken to ensure that the reasons for the disaster are learnt, and the possibility of future disasters similar to the existing one are drastically reduced. Somehow, the confidence that we will learn a lot from the disaster does not really seem apparent. The recipe for deaths from most fires in India fall under the following heads:
- Fire safety equipment not installed; or installed and not maintained
- Staff not trained on usage of fire equipment and no senior member who can lead staff in case of fires
- No regular inspection by fire safety officials, or no follow up
- Hazardous materials placed in such a way that they can quickly catch fire
- No proper exit routes in case of a fire
There may be a few others, but these are the common reasons for why fires kill so many people – either from the actual heat of the fire, or from the smoke caused by the fire.
When you consider the deadly fire in a hospital in Kolkata, a lot of the above factors were valid. There was a lot of waste flammable material kept in the basement which was flagged by the Fire Service, but after the hospital asked for some time, there was no follow up.
Read more…

Rail accident – A non-functioning Railway Minister

The assignment of the Railway Minister in India has been a political post for quite some time. The Railways is a huge provider of support, in the form of the number of people it employs, the amount of purchasing it does, the amount of material it carries, and of course, carrying people all over the country. Further, deciding on the number of trains that a particular state has, as well as the location of new establishments that the Railways setups (train manufacturing facilities, training institutes, etc) gives immense power to a minister to gain public support. As a result, the post of the Railways Minister has been one that has been sought after by a number of people in the past. Most of them have been from the Eastern side of the country, with Laloo Prasad Yadav and Nitish Kumar from Bihar, and Mamta Banerjee from West Bengal. Apart from the time of Nitish Kumar, when he was considered to have set in process a system of reform, the other 2 ministers are remembered for increasing the number of trains to their home states. When Laloo Prasad Yadav was the minister, he was projected to have turned over the railways and made huge revenue, but when Mamta Banerjee became the next minister, she revealed how Laloo Prasad Yadav had actually fudged a lot of figures and that the profit he had shown was ephemeral, not something that was sustainable.
Read more…

A greater push against drunken driving – the law tightening the screws on offenders

In the wester countries (and in many of the countries in Asia such as Singapore and Hong Kong), there are huge pressures that prevent drunken driving. Drunken driving is treated as a crime that can bring in severe penalties on the person who is accused of the crime, and is justified by the fact that drunken driving is seen as a preventable action that can cause deadly accidents. Statistics also show that drunken driving cause many accidents the world over, many of which lead to casualties and also inflict economic damage.
Punishments for people caught when being drunk while driving can be stiff – it can mean the driving license being suspended for months, it can mean having to spend some time in jail (even if over-night), and it can mean severe fines. In India, however, there has not been much of a focus on punishments for drunken driving. There would be campaigns near New Year and other times of the year when there would be a lot more partying, but even then the fine system would be in place. Even if a fine is of Rs. 1000 or more for drunken driving, the impact of such a punishment on people is limited.
Read more…