Mysuru: An eyewitness to the tragedy at the Krishna Raja Sagar Dam where three tourists were killed last night as a giant tree fell on them has alleged that the authorities at the KRS were ill-equipped to handle emergency situation and there was not even a single ambulance there when the accident occurred.
Addressing a press conference at Pathrakarthara Bhavan in city this morning, Sabir Ahmed, a tourist from Mangaluru who was present at the KRS when the incident occurred said that the authorities were more interested in clearing the trees rather than rushing the injured to the hospital.
“The tree came crashing on the tourists Vinod, Hilara and Rajashekhar in front of my eyes. Due to the impact, Rajashekar was bleeding profusely from his head. His daughter, who was also injured, was pleading with the officials to take them to the hospital. The authorities did not even provide first aid,” he said.
“When the incident occurred, we realised that the KRS, though collects lakhs as revenue, has no ambulance and a dedicated team to handle emergency situation. They had to wait till the Fire Services Department personnel arrived,” he alleged.
“Women and children were crying and the men were confused as they had nowhere to go and did not know whom to approach. The authorities reached the accident spot late though there was an emergency,” he said.
Litterateur Bannur K. Raju, who was also present at the press conference, said that the KRS authorities must pay a minimum compensation of Rs. 20 lakh to the families of the victims. “If you see the ticket entry rates, the KRS Dam collects crores of rupees as income per month and the revenues peak every weekend. Despite this, there is no emergency-handling equipment,” he said.
It is sad to note that three lives were lost along with many injured. It is sad that there was no ambulance at a heavily visited tourist attraction to transport people in case of an emergency. Hopefully this will be a lesson for the establishment to plan and equip all tourist spots attracting large crowd with necessary ambulance and medical facilities. Many of the local and national voluntary organizations should be encouraged to pitch in this effort providing equipment and personnel. Emergency evacuation drills should be conducted periodically to handle the crowd and injured persons.
My sincere condolences to the families affected by this tragedy.
A EPRT (Emergency response preparedness team) should be established with in the workforce and they should undergo training for first aid, CPR, fire fighting and emergency rescue. one or two life guards near boating spot should be appointed
Authorities should display emergency numbers at various spots with various languages
A dedicated ambulance should be in place at least in peak time and weekends to counter any sort of medical emergency as there is no near by hospitals.