At least twenty individuals, including the motorcyclist, were killed in a devastating road accident in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district early morning on Friday when a Bengaluru-bound luxury bus from Hyderabad burst into flames after hitting a two-wheeler
The ghastly accident took place near Chinna Tekuru village on the national highway and consumed the whole vehicle within minutes, injuring many others in the process.
The bus was owned by Vemuri Kaveri Travels and was plying with the service number VKAVERI-601 from Hyderabad to Bengaluru. There were more than forty passengers on board, including two drivers. Twenty-five passengers had boarded from different parts of Hyderabad, such as Nizampet, Gachibowli, LB Nagar, JNTU, KPHB, Erragadda, SR Nagar, Paradise, Nampally, Lakdikapool, Suraram, Miyapur, Vanasthalipuram, and Chintal.
Witnesses reported that the mishap took place between 1:30 am when the bus hit a two-wheeler on the highway. The force of the crash was so powerful that the two-wheeler fuel tank burst into flames, setting off a huge fire that quickly engulfed the front section of the bus. Within seconds, the fire engulfed the entire vehicle, trapping the passengers inside with scarce opportunity to escape.
Locals moved in at the sound of the explosion and attempted to save passengers by shattering the glass windows, but the ferocity of the fire left it all but impossible to enter the vehicles. Firefighting units from Kurnool and adjacent areas were sent in immediately to the scene and fought for more than an hour to extinguish the fire. Before the fire was contained, the bus had fully been burnt, and the passengers were found completely burnt beyond identification.
Kurnool district authorities, police, and rescue teams arrived at the site of the accident shortly after getting news. The bodies were transported to Kurnool Government Hospital for identification and post-mortem analysis. Authorities mentioned that the identification of the victims is yet to be completed, as nearly all the bodies were badly charred. Up to now, about twenty-one individuals have been traced, while attempts are ongoing to contact the families of the remaining passengers.
The vehicle was registered in Odisha, as per reports, with pending challans for overspeeding, questioning its operational standards and safety compliance. The Telangana officials have collaborated with their Andhra Pradesh counterparts to aid in the investigation and liaise with families of passengers who had boarded from Hyderabad.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu was deeply grieved by the tragedy and sent his sympathies to the grieving families. He also asked officials to offer all necessary assistance to the victims and their families. “It is a very distressing incident.”. The government is with the kin of the victims,” Naidu said in a statement, promising that a comprehensive inquiry will be made to find the reason for the fire and any oversight, if at all, on the part of the travel agency.
The accident has again raised eyebrows on road safety, especially by private buses plying long routes under cover of night.As investigations go on, officials are probing if the bus had appropriate emergency exits, fire extinguishers, and fire-resistant materials installed, as required by transport regulations. For the time being, the burnt remains of the bus serve as a harrowing reminder of yet another life-shattering tragedy on India’s roads — one which turned a mundane overnight trip into a horror for dozens of unsuspecting travelers.
