Kurnool accident: Trapped in a burning bus

On the nighttime of October 23, 2025, aft holidaying successful Hyderabad, Nelakurthy Ramesh, 30, boarded a autobus bound for Bengaluru with his woman and 2 children. Sharing the travel was Ramesh’s extended household — his cousin, cousin’s wife, and their 2 children. All of them settled into the berths of the sleeper bus, operated by V-Kaveri Travels, a backstage “luxury autobus service” arsenic per its website.

The autobus had started its travel from Kukatpally, a suburb successful north-western Hyderabad, astir 9.40 p.m. The 2 families boarded the autobus astatine L.B. Stadium, which is astir 9 kilometres from Kukatpally. There were 44 passengers and 2 drivers successful the bus, according to the question agency’s summons list. Some of the passengers fell dormant successful the air-conditioned bus, portion others remained glued to their phones, their faces illuminated by the bluish glow of screens.

Ramesh recalls what happened hours later. “There was a thud that shook maine retired of sleep,” helium says. “I thought a tyre was punctured and the operator would stop, but helium continued to drive.” He checked his phone. It was 3 a.m.

A fewer seconds later, helium noticed heavy fume emanating from the driver’s cabin. “Someone from the backmost shouted, ‘Fire! Fire!’ We saw flames successful the beforehand of the bus,” says Ramesh.

The autobus halted successful the mediate of the road. Ramesh peered into the acheronian and saw a median connected the close broadside and bushes connected the left. He felt a consciousness of foreboding. He bolted to the beforehand doorway to unfastened it, but shrank backmost arsenic the blaze became bigger.

“I thought each of america were going to dice and wanted to flight somehow,” helium says.

Ramesh picked up a blunt entity and started hitting a model connected his near side. Three blows later, the solid pane shattered. Ramesh pushed his 2 children retired and past his wife.

As helium did this, helium screamed astir the occurrence outbreak to alert his relative connected the precocious berth. “By then, heavy clouds of achromatic fume had filled up the full autobus and radical were coughing. I wanted to prevention my relative and his household but I could not enactment successful the autobus for a 2nd longer,” says Ramesh, crying arsenic helium remembers the past fewer moments successful the burning autobus earlier jumping retired to prevention his ain life.

Ramesh’s extended household of 4 were among the 19 passengers who died successful the calamity that took spot adjacent Chinnatekuru colony of Kallur mandal successful the Kurnool territory of Andhra Pradesh. Several others were injured.

Charred remains

That night, Harish, a techie from Hyderabad, was besides heading to Bengaluru successful a car with his friends. As the car came adjacent to the lasting autobus adjacent Chinnatekur, Harish noticed a assemblage lying connected the near broadside of the road. “I archetypal thought a rider had fallen disconnected the bus. I went person and realised that the autobus had caught fire,” helium says.

Harish stepped retired of the car and ran towards the bus. He picked up a boulder and threw it astatine the vehicle, breaking a model pane. “People were screaming. I saw a pistillate holding a kid connected her lap. There were flames each astir her. She gestured to maine frantically for assistance but I was incapable to bash anything. Some radical jumped retired done the breached window,” helium says.

Harish says helium could not spot the operator anywhere. “It was transportation dark. It was besides raining, truthful we couldn’t spot much,” helium says.

At astir 3.20 a.m., the Kurnool constabulary received a telephone from a communications professional, Hyma Reddy, who had seen the burning autobus from her car from crossed the divider. The idiosyncratic who attended the telephone — an serviceman of the Special Branch — alerted the Inspector of the Ulindakonda constabulary station, astir 7 km from the mishap spot, aft confirming the determination with Reddy.

The constabulary rushed to the spot with their teams, recalls Reddy. Firefighters and ambulances besides arrived astir the aforesaid time. They doused the occurrence and recovered respective charred bodies inside. The constabulary moved the bodies to the Kurnool authorities infirmary for DNA digit printing tests to found the identities of the dead.

The constabulary besides recovered skid marks connected the roadworthy 200 metres distant from the spot, a motorcycle stuck underneath the bus, burnt sealed boxes of mobile phones wrong 1 of the luggage cabins, and bare beforehand wheels without traces of tyres. These findings, they say, triggered aggregate theories astir however the autobus had caught fire.

The constabulary besides recovered the assemblage of a young antheral astir 200 metres from the bus. They wondered if determination had been a head-on collision betwixt the motorcycle and the bus. As they discussed theories and gathered grounds astatine the spot, the 2nd operator of the bus, Shivanarayana, turned up earlier the constabulary 3 hours later.

According to Kurnool Deputy Inspector General of Police, Koya Praveen, Shivanarayana told the constabulary that a antheral called M. Laxmaiah was driving the autobus erstwhile helium ran implicit a motorcycle that was “already lying connected the road”. Laxmaiah panicked. “As the motorcycle got stuck underneath the autobus betwixt the 2 beforehand wheels, it got dragged for astir 200 metres. This triggered sparks,” says Praveen, who interrogated Shivanarayana. “The flames started spreading quickly. Laxmaiah woke up Shivanarayana, who began breaking model panes with a rod. Laxmaiah fled the scene.”

Ramesh, however, wrote successful his complaint, which was accessed by The Hindu, that the autobus rammed into the motorcycle “from behind”, instantly sidesplitting the motorcycle rider. He says this is what ignited the fire.

A nighttime of revelry and tragedy

After peculiar teams circulated pictures of the dormant antheral connected the roadworthy and examined video footage from surveillance cameras connected the way to the mishap spot, the constabulary identified him arsenic Shivashankar, a tile idiosyncratic from Prajanagar successful Kurnool town. The constabulary made inquiries and recovered that helium had returned location connected the evening of October 23 from work.

According to an Inspector associated with the probe of the case, peculiar teams picked up 4 radical with whom Shivashankar had worked that day. One of them admitted that helium had transferred ₹100 online to Shivashankar aft midnight. The co-worker said helium had asked Shivashankar wherefore helium needed wealth successful the mediate of nighttime and Shivashankar had told him that helium was taking his person to Dhone, a municipality successful Nandyal district. Shivashankar sent his co-worker a selfie of him and his friend.

Meanwhile, investigators recovered a video clip of Shivashankar getting his motorcycle filled with petrol astatine a bunk minutes earlier the accident. They saw a young antheral riding pillion. When the constabulary sent the representation to the co-worker, helium confirmed that the young antheral was the aforesaid idiosyncratic successful the selfie with Shivashankar. But wherever had helium gone?

Without entree to the phone, the constabulary relied connected awesome tracking and pinpointed Shivashankar’s mobile to Tuggali, an country astir 90 km from Kurnool. They rushed determination and recovered that the telephone was with a young man, Erni Swamy alias Nani, who had accompanied Shivashankar.

Nani admitted that helium and Shivashankar had been drinking the nighttime of October 23 astatine his location successful Laxmipuram, astir 12 km from Chinnatekur. After getting heavy drunk, they had fallen asleep. “At astir 1 a.m. Nani woke up and told Shivashankar that helium had missed a wedding astatine Dhone. Shivashankar said helium would driblet Nani astatine Dhone,” says an researcher who spoke to Nani.

“Nani says Shivashankar, who was speeding connected the road, rammed into a roadside railing. Nani was flung disconnected the motorcycle due to the fact that of the interaction and helium landed successful immoderate bushes with insignificant scratches. He walked up to the motorcycle and recovered his person dead. He managed to propulsion the assemblage to the side. He tried to resistance the motorcycle lying successful the mediate of the roadworthy to the broadside arsenic well, but it was excessively dense for him,” the researcher says.

Minutes later, a autobus deed the bike. A fewer much passed by. Then the sleeper autobus ran implicit the motorcycle and dragged it for astir 200 m, explains the investigator. “Nani saw from a region that the autobus had caught occurrence and heard screams for help. Scared, helium stayed rooted astatine the spot,” helium says. After immoderate time, Nani got into a tractor and went to Tuggali, helium explains.

Changing structure

The sleeper manager autobus was primitively registered arsenic a 53-seater autobus with the Medchal Malkajgiri Road Transport Office connected August 8, 2018. When the archetypal proprietor decided to merchantability it, the V-Kaveri Travels absorption purchased it, explains Raghunandan Goud, Road Transport Officer from Medchal Malkajgiri district.

“Eventually, the caller proprietor got it re-registered successful Daman and Diu connected March 31, 2023, reportedly aft converting it into a sleeper coach. They secured a ‘fitness certificate’ from there. Later, the autobus was erstwhile again re-registered with the Odisha authorities connected September 20. The autobus was yet to get the caller registration fig from Odisha,” says Goud.

The investigators are verifying whether the instrumentality permits transport agencies to person seater buses into sleeper coaches. Even if approvals are secured, changes successful seating patterns tin compromise information measures, they explain.

Officials who inspected the autobus accidental the archetypal operation had been modified. The prime of the leather, the spot covers, curtains, plywood and different materials were each of inexpensive quality, which, they believe, caused the occurrence to dispersed rapidly.

Zuber Ali Khan, a Hyderabad-based occurrence and forensic engineer, who examined the mishap spot, says each mishap is unique. “In this case, immoderate of the passengers whitethorn person choked to decease oregon fallen unconscious earlier getting burnt. This is due to the fact that the fume that emanated from the inflammable worldly utilized for the seats and berths was highly toxic,” helium says.

Jayant Kushwaha, 27, often travels betwixt Hyderabad and Bengaluru. He says helium has utilized the aforesaid autobus work galore times. “Maybe the autobus was old. It looked old,” helium says. “The exigency window, the driver’s cabin, everything was jammed.”

No lessons learnt

In 2013, a backstage autobus heading towards Hyderabad from Bengaluru caught fire. Forty-five people, including a large woman, died successful the incident, which besides occurred connected NH 44 successful October.

After that incident, accidental respective constabulary officers, radical suggested that video and audio announcements beryllium made earlier the commencement of each travel astir exits and introduction points, exigency doors, and the determination of hammers. These suggestions were submitted to the State and the Central governments. However, galore survivors of the Kurnool autobus mishap accidental they did not cognize astir exigency doors oregon hammers.

The Andhra Pradesh Disaster Response and Fire Services Department and the Andhra Pradesh Forensic Science Laboratory (APFSL) are conducting abstracted inquiries to ascertain the origin of the occurrence and of however it spread.

The Director General successful charge, Andhra Pradesh Disaster Response and Fire Services, P. Venkata Ramana, says the question autobus was not tally according to information norms. “All the occurrence information norms were violated,” helium says. “There were nary hammers to interruption the model panes and determination was nary 2nd exit (emergency exit), which is mandatory.” There was 1 occurrence extinguisher, which was expected to beryllium utilized by the driver. “But helium fled.”

APFSL is conducting tests of the samples collected from the bus. “As of now, we person conducted DNA sampling of the deceased and sent the reports to the police,” says G. Palaraju, Director of APFSL. Palaraju says determination were astir 100 mobile phones successful the cabin. “Their batteries look to person exploded arsenic the occurrence spread,” helium says. The artillery successful the autobus besides exploded, helium adds.

Palaraju says teams person collected 83 samples including burnt luggage, spot covers, damaged compartment phones, doors, melted upwind shields, and different objects for verification. “Carrying mobile phones successful the luggage compartment is simply a usurpation of norms,” helium says. He adds that since the AC was connected astatine the clip of the accident, oxygen levels were precocious successful the sleeper coach, which caused the flames to dispersed rapidly.

The quality of the autobus mishap has shattered the lives of Srinivas Reddy and Vijitha Reddy of Vasthakonduru colony successful Yadadri territory of Telangana. Their daughter, Anusha Reddy, a techie moving successful Bengaluru, had travel location for Deepavali and had near connected the evening of October 23.

“She called america astir 9.30 p.m. saying she had conscionable boarded the bus,” recalls an inconsolable Srinivas Reddy. “She told maine she would telephone connected reaching Bengaluru. All we got was a telephone from the constabulary telling america that she had died.”

This communicative was edited by Radhika Santhanam