About Acts Kerala in Old district hospital compound, Thrissur

ACTS was not born in a day. The inspiration to form a voluntary organisation to provide timely service to persons involved in road accidents came to Fr Davis Chiramel, of Thrissur Diocese when he happened to witness a gruesome road accident in which a blooming artist Sri. Shaji Thanjan of Kalasadan breathed his last. The accident occured just after midnight. Nobody came forward to remove the accident victim to a hospital. It was left to an Orchestra group which came that way to take Shaji to Hospital. But it was late and the innevitable has happened.

This and similar incidents at short intervals were enough for Fr. Davis Chiramel to ponder over the possibility of providing timely help to accident victims. He shared his thoughts with his young friends and their joint effort culminated in the formation of a voluntary organisation namely "Accident Care & Transport Service (ACTS). When they approached Mr. Alkesh Kumar Sharma, the then District Collector of Thrissur, he was overwhelmed by the initiative and enthussiasm of those involved in the issue and extended all possible help.

The Directors of Sampanna Kuries, Thrissur were the first to come forward to give timely and monetary help to the organisation to purchase an ambulance. The organisation founded on 8-5-2000 is now functioning smoothly due to the dedicated service of office and field staff. The organisation is also recieving monetary help from public as member.

The ACTS is proud to record that during the first decade of its existance, it could extend its helping hand to nearly fifty thousand people involved in road accidents. Unlike in other road accidents, the volunteers of ACTS are not summoned to courts as witness. The volunteers of ACTS perform their duty as authorised by the Dist Collector. They are provided with identity cards. Looting of personal belongings of victims in accidents was not uncommon. With the stepping in of ACTS, the accident victims were able to get their belongings in tact.

After a humble beginning, the ACTS has now spread its wings. It has chapters at Sharja, Quatar in Gulf, besides Mumbai and Poona. In Thrissur district, its branches with fully equipped ambulance service are functioning at Mannuthy, Ollur, Kechery, Cherpu, Thriprayar, Chentrappinni, Vellangallur and Guruvayur. The branches can be easily contacted by dialing 1099. Immediately on reciept of information about an accident, the volunteers of ACTS rushes to the spot to remove victims to the nearest hospital.

ACTS was formed with a motive to act quickly on getting information about road accidents. Free service in road accidents being a novel idea, was well recieved by the public and Govt authorities. Ably assisted by a dedicated team of volunteers and drivers as field staff, the ACTS is always alert to rush to the accident site for quick removal of accident victims to the nearly hospitals. All the branches of ACTS have been provided with fully equipped ambulances to give service round the clock. The ambulances are sponsored by the public. The following services are at present rendered by "ACTS".