New Delhi, April 18 -- The Supreme Court on Thursday directed states and union territories to come out with a swift response protocol (SRP) for reaching immediate help to road accident victims underscoring the rise of road accidents in the country and the need to save lives of victims who fail to get immediate medical aid.

Granting six months for the exercise to be completed, the bench headed by justice Abhay S Oka said, "We are of the view that states and UTs must work on having a SRP. In every state, the grassroot level situation may be different. We direct the states and UTs to take effective steps to develop the SRP with the objective to ensure help immediately reaches to accident victims."

The court also sought a report from states...