Electrocution kills thousands yearly
We seldom give much thought to the people who are disabled or who die due to electrocution by live wire that are found dangling on roads. This is so because this cause of death does not hog the headlines when we consider death or injury by other more common causes of death, for instance, traffic accidents. But the situation is much more dire than we are led to believe. According to a government study conducted in 2016 that interviewed some 330,000 people, it was found that 7,163 people were permanently disabled. The number of people killed stood at 9,210 and some 2,70,622 others were injured due to electric shocks.
These are serious numbers. What an associate professor of burn and plastic surgery at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital (DMCH) tells us is that more than a third of the people admitted at DMCH are electric burn patients. Electrocution is considered by physicians to be one of the most devastating injuries since the bulk of the victims are maimed for life. Indeed, DMCH alone treats nearly 35,000 people for burns every year. Electrocution can and does result in amputation of entire limbs and all this has been going on for years.
That people at large lack very basic sense and are generally unaware of handling live wires, is plain to see. When we factor in poor management by utility agencies in keeping such live wires out of people's reach merely compounds this problem. Working class people and children bear the full brunt of these dangerous dangling wires and unless serious effort is made to raise public awareness, casualty and injury rates will continue to climb. Laws also need to be enacted and enforced that would make building owners or construction site personnel liable for leaving live wires within reach of people.
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