I WAS recently driving on a main road when I saw a motorcycle rider taking the helmet from the side of his bike and putting it on his head. After travelling a bit further, I came to know of the reason: there were traffic policemen standing ahead of us. As soon as he passed by the policemen, the helmet was no longer on his head. Ironically, helmets are meant to avoid challans, not to ensure safety.

Coincidentally, only an hour later, I came across a motorcyclist who had met with an unfortunate accident. He was lying semi-conscious and had a wound on his head, bleeding profusely. At the time of the accident, he was not wearing a helmet.

Apart from emphasising the importance of wearing a helmet, the latter occurrence also shed light on the inappropriate way we tend to react to such situations. In fact, such a person is not to be moved unnecessarily for fear of fractures and injuries, and should only be moved to one side of the road with utmost care. Sometimes, a person from the crowd would make the injured person sit; then some other would make him lie down. In the end, the injured would be crammed into a van like a goat.

It has become the `instinct` of many of us to offer water to an injured person. For a person like the one mentioned above, such an act could result in aspiration. In the worst case, choking and death may occur.

So, unless the person is conscious and asks for water, there is no need to do that.

Muhammad Majid Shafi Islamabad