Emergency cases jumped by more than 10% in Gujarat during the three days of the Diwali festivities from November 4-6, data released by GVK EMRI, the operator of the 108 ambulance service in the state, showed.
The biggest rise in the emergency calls was on the Gujarati New Year day, celebrated a day after Diwali.
The service provider received 11,756 emergency calls during the three days as against 3,546 on normal days. The number of emergency calls was 3,581 on Diwali day, 4,307 on Gujarati New Year day, and 3,868 on Bhai Dooj, the next day. The increase over the three days was just over 10.5%, the data showed.
Road accidents showed a big jump during the three days. As against 381 accident-related emergency calls on average days, GVK EMRI catered to 700 such emergency cases on Diwali day, an increase of nearly 84%. There were 1,055 such emergency calls on the new year day, a jump of 177% over normal days. The number was 605 or 59% higher on Bhai Dooj. During the three-day period, the increase in road accident emergencies was more than 106%.
Similarly, non-vehicular emergency calls surged from 295 on normal days to 1,299 during the three-day festival period. Burn cases shot up from seven on normal days to 54 over the three days. The data showed that the number of physical assaults also nearly doubled from 96 on an average day to 546 days from November 4-6. Cases of falls increased from 135 a day to 509, an increase of around 20%.