Fatal rush killing delivery boys
The 30-minute or free fad offered by a number of pizza joints often raise occupational hazards for those who bring it to your doorstep. Sometimes it gets fatal too.
The 30-minute or free fad offered by a number of pizza joints often raise occupational hazards for those who bring it to your doorstep. Sometimes it gets fatal too.
It has been revealed that food delivery boys constitute a good number of road accident victims across the city. Moving on two-wheelers, these people tend to speed to adhere to the delivery deadline, hence, becoming vulnerable to road traffic accidents.
"Though there is no separate data maintained by us based on a patient's profession, but it is not difficult to recognize delivery boys by the kind of clothes that they wear," said Dr MC Misra, chief of the All India Institute's Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Trauma Centre.
The trauma centre gets around five such cases in a month. "Most of these people suffer from either head injuries or multiple fractures; being on a two-wheeler puts them at a higher risk," added Dr Misra.
Two to three food delivery boys are brought every month to Delhi's other standalone hospital for accident victims- Sushruta Trauma Centre, near ISBT Kashmere Gate. "I have operated upon a couple of food delivery boys during the past few months. They all have been emergency cases, but are not brought every day," said a surgeon associated with the hospital.
Meeting deadlines makes them rush usually. "There are too many orders, and we cannot afford to waste time or be slow, otherwise there will be huge backlog," said a delivery boy, with a prominent eating joint at east Delhi's Preet Vihar area.
"Evenings are usually busy for us because that is the time when we get most orders for home-delivery," he added.
The victims of accidents that take place in and around central Delhi are brought to the Ram Manohar Lohia (RML) Hospital. The hospital gets at least one accident victim, who is a food delivery boy, in a month. "Though these are just rough estimates but it is a general observation that because of the rush they tend to meet with an accident. Head injury is quite common in them. Another sad aspect is that most of these victims are young boys,” ," said Dr Sunil Saxena, head of emergency medical services, RML.