Road accident victims will soon get immediate and cashless medical treatment under a new healthcare scheme, road transport and highways minister Nitin Gadkari said on Thursday. The scheme will cover treatment at selected hospitals even if the injured person does not have insurance.

“The Union ministry of road transport and highways (MoRTH) is developing the scheme, and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will announce it soon,” Gadkari said at a press conference. 

Adding to it he mentioned that,  “The new scheme would provide cashless treatment to all road accidents (national highways and state roads) at designated hospitals, and will offer the cover even to victims of uninsured vehicles so that immediate medical attention is not denied in the golden hour that helps save lives,” Gadkari told reporters in Delhi after meeting transport ministers from states and Union territories.

ALSO READ

Cashless care during the ‘golden hour’

The “golden hour” is the first hour after a serious accident, when quick medical help can make the difference between life and death. Gadkari said the nationwide rollout will take place after successful pilots in Assam, Chandigarh, Uttarakhand, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Puducherry.

Under the scheme, accident victims will get cashless treatment of up to Rs 1.5 lakh per person for each accident. It will cover hospital care for up to seven days from the accident date at all hospitals listed under the Ayushman Bharat health insurance scheme.

Insurance companies offering third-party motor insurance will contribute around 1% of the premium to a common fund. This fund will be used to pay for the cashless treatment of accident victims. The Centre will also continue the Rah-Veer scheme, under which states and Union territories are reimbursed for giving “Good Samaritans” Rs 25,000 for quickly helping accident victims reach hospitals.

Gadkari said the cashless treatment initiative is part of the ministry’s bigger plan to cut road deaths and improve emergency response. Government data shows India recorded around 500,000 road accidents last year, killing more than 180,000 people – the highest in the world.

To further improve road safety, MoRTH also plans to make vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication mandatory for all four-wheelers. Vehicles will use short-range radio signals to talk to each other without needing mobile networks, MoRTH secretary V. Umashankar said.

ALSO READ

The system will allow vehicles to warn each other about dangers like heavy fog, blind turns, stopped vehicles, or accident-caused traffic jams, helping drivers slow down or stop in time.

Stricter bus body code after recent accidents

The Centre also plans to tighten bus body code rules after a number of deadly bus accidents. Gadkari said this step is necessary because of poor bus designs and low-quality materials used by some manufacturers. In the last three months alone, six major bus accidents have killed 145 people.

The bus body code is a government rulebook that decides how buses should be built to keep passengers safe.

The updated rules will require all bus makers to get type approval from authorized testing agencies, instead of the earlier practice of self-certification by manual bus body builders.