Crush is defined as below in Dictionary.com,
crush
[kruhsh] Show IPA
verb (used with object)
1.
2.
to squeeze or pound into small fragments or particles, asore, stone, etc.
3.
to force out by pressing or squeezing; extract: to crushcottonseeds in order to produce oil.
4.
to rumple; wrinkle; crease.
5.
to smooth or flatten by pressure: to crush leather.
Crush i Have not known to be defined by crushed to Death or mashed with severe injuries.
However when you start practising in India as an Ortho Surgeon, you cannot miss this definition. I have now seen people crushed with severe injuries and the most upsetting one is when the crush is due to Run over by big vehicles such as lorry.
Here i would like to ask you to watch the two wheel vehicles driven by the family head with his family of two or three or even four travelling in this vehicle. you would say is there anything in particular you want to add to what we kn0w as a common occurance.
Watch carefully, then you would realize the wife/mother of the family at the back simply sits without holding onto anything as she often uses both hands to hold the child in her lap or even worse, she holds on the shopping bag.
Now you start wondering how the hell does she keep a balance on this vehicle with a narrow seat with the two wheeler speeding with the potholes and speed breakers. I suppose just like our cochlea, the whole body is kept under equilibrium and she is safe.
Then you read this scenario where a pregnant wife of 7 months in the pillion seat of the two wheeler falls off on the wrong side of the road due to the collision by another two wheeler. You are going to ask me if the child is safe as the lady is pregnant.
What i am going to write now may upset you, but please read on!
But the pregnant lady having fallen onto the road, was then run over by the lorry to death.
the unborn child you have to remember would not have died straight away like the mother who was run over her head.
The Child would have died few minutes later as the heart of the mother would have kept the child alive even thou for only further few minutes.
Now this really begs the question, what are our priorities in India right now!
Educate ourselves and others on this issue of Road safety. people dying of diseases, infections, even cancer have some time to reconcile themselves and the relatives have time to get accustomed to the idea of losing someone they love.
But Road Traffic Accident Victims, they are knocked into a wilderness without even having a second of warning
What is more upsetting is unlike the diseases, this illness due to the Road traffic accidents are still believed to be accidents. I feel that they are incidents.
For an incident to happen, there must be a hazard and a risk, and we should be able to predict that this would happen!
Now in this scenario, mothers sitting to one side of a two wheeler with no grip or hold are definitely going to be falling, thus the risk is very high. The hazards as we have discussed are the unruly drivers who are on your way.
When i mentioned that one must be unlucky to have been injured in a RTA in India, my friend says that one should be lucky to be alive in India
Drive Safely
But more important, look after your family
Warm Regards
Chockalingam
