Kendrapara: Police today felicitated three people of Jagatsinghpur district for coming to the aid of road accident victims last month.
Three residents of Raghunathpur town- Saroj Das, Raghunath Moharana and Dinanath Singh - were given cash incentives and certificates for extending help to shift as many as 19 road accident victims to a hospital on November 21, said Jay Narayan Pankaj, Superintendent of Police, Jagatsinghpur.
"It's refreshing to note that the Good Samaritan policy adopted by the district police is reaping dividends.
More and more people are now coming forward to help accident victims," said Jay Narayan Pankaj, Superintendent of Police, Jagatsinghpur.
On the morning of November 21, a passenger bus had collided head on with a school van in Tarapur area. Both the vehicles skidded off the road and slipped into a ditch.
All three of them who were felicitated today had shown exemplary humanitarian attributes. They did their best to drag the passengers out of the crashed vehicles, the SP said.
They also sent SOS to police, fire brigade and ambulances for the timely shifting of the victims, Pankaj said.
"I was out on a morning walk when I heard a deafening sound followed by loud screams. The vehicles had turned turtle. Without wasting time, I ran to drag people out of the mangled bus," said Saroj Das, a resident of Tarapur.
Two passersby- Raghunath and Dinanath - assisted him in the rescue work.
"We called the emergency service for the shifting of victims to Raghunathpur community health centre and Jagatsinghpur district headquarters hospital," Das said.
The Good Samaritan scheme has definitely given an impetus to people to help accident victims, Pankaj said.
"The scheme helps in reducing the time for an accident victim to reach a hospital. People are usually hesitant to help as police investigation and legal hassles following a road accident scare them. Now, however, many are volunteering to come forward to don the mantle of a 'good samaritan'," he added.