Rishabh Pant's accident made media spectacle, but it's not new for India

Indian national team wicket-keeper batter Rishabh Pant met with a horrible car accident and sustained fatal injuries when he was driving from Delhi to Roorkee at the early hours of 30th December, Friday.

The cricketer was alone in his car when it collided with a divider which led to the vehicle turning a couple of times before catching fire. Pant has been admitted to the Max hospital in Dehradun where he is receiving treatment.

"Hearing a loud sound of the accident, nearby villagers along with the local cops, rushed to the spot and pulled him out of the car. He was then rushed to a nearby hospital from where he was referred to a major hospital in Dehradun," Swapn Kishor Singh, superintendent of police, Haridwar (rural), told TOI.

While locals should be applauded for thinking on their feet and taking the right action promptly, there have been reports, and visible evidence of general public taking pictures and videos of the crash site and of Pant, and posting them on social media for everyone to see.

Reels and short-format videos with a bleeding Rishabh Pant in the frame as unrelated music plays in the background are now viral on social media. Here are two such examples which are doing the rounds of Instagram and Twitter.

In both the clips, the person making the video isn't seen helping the victim but is busy making content for the whole world to see. Doing this to anyone, be it a celebrity or not, is grossly disrespectful and inhumane.

In a shocking development, reports have also emerged suggesting that the injured cricketer had to in fact call for an ambulance himself and got robbed in the process as well. According to a Jagran report, some youth reportedly ran away with a bag full of money from inside the car as Rishabh was being tended to - a claim refuted by Uttarakhand Police.

However, this isn't the first instance of the Indian public being callous when it comes to being proactive and helping the needy during accidents. The country is no stranger to road accidents as it witnessed 412432 accidents in 2021, according to the report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

In this large number, there have been many such cases where the onlookers have been reported to be, well just that, onlookers. More often than not, they would whip out their mobile phones to take a quick video of the incident instead of extending a helping hand.

In an incident dating back to 2017, a youth in Koppal, Karnataka, succumbed to his injuries because people weren't ready to help him, thanks to the fear of being charged by the police or authorities. Instead, some people recorded the footage of the victim.

A 2018 accident saw Bengaluru locals stand around a bleeding man, taking his photos. The victim received help a whole 20 minutes after the accident when the police arrived to help.

Noida police had taken a step in the right direction back in 2019 when they announced that people taking selfies, pictures, or videos with the victim or of the accident, will be booked.

"The Supreme Court has directed everyone to first help an accident victim reach the hospital. But we have noticed that passersby often stop to take picture or selfies at these sites. They even record the plight of victims in their phones. This eventually creates a roadblock and hits traffic," SP (traffic) Anil Kumar Jha had told TOI then.

Unfortunately, these Supreme Court guidelines, which have been crafted to treat the 'Good Samaritans' with respect and anonymity if chosen, have so far failed to appeal to the good side of the general public.