Amaravati, March 26 (IANS) The ghastly bus fire, which claimed 14 lives and left 22 others injured in Andhra Pradesh’s Markapuram district on Thursday, is the latest in a series of deadly accidents involving buses in the Telugu states.

Both Andhra Pradesh and Telangana have witnessed at least four major bus tragedies in the last six months.

Nineteen people were burnt to death when a private bus caught fire after running over a motorbike lying on the road following an accident near Kurnool town of Andhra Pradesh on October 24, 2025.

The bus belonging to a private tour operator and carrying 46 people was on its way to Bengaluru from Hyderabad when the ghastly accident happened near Chinnatekur village on the outskirts of Kurnool.

While 19 passengers, including two children, were charred to death, 27 passengers, including both drivers, escaped by breaking glass windows.

Police investigation revealed that the bus ran over a motorcycle lying on the road after the rider rammed it into the road divider. The bus dragged the bike for about 200 meters, and friction and fuel leakage from the bike ignited a massive fire, which quickly engulfed the entire bus.

Police concluded that the bike rider, B. Shiva Shankar (22), died after hitting the divider, while his friend Erriswamy alias Nani, who was riding pillion and escaped with minor injuries, fled the scene in panic after watching the bus in flames. Police arrested Miriyala Lakshmaiah, who was driving the bus, and Vemuri Vinod Kumar, owner of V. Kaveri Travels, for causing death by rash or negligent act.

On November 3, 2025, a bus-truck collision in the Rangareddy district of Telangana claimed 19 lives and left 24 others injured.

The tipper truck laden with gravel rammed into the Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TGSRTC) bus coming from the opposite direction. The bus with 72 people on board was coming to Hyderabad from Tandur. The deceased include 10 women and a 10-month-old baby. Drivers of both the TGSRTC bus and truck were killed in the head-on collision. Passengers sitting in the first six rows were crushed and buried under the gravel as the tipper lorry pierced through the bus.

The same day, a private bus overturned in Andhra Pradesh’s Eluru district, killing a man and injuring 10 others. The accident occurred when the bus, belonging to Bharati Travels and proceeding towards Hyderabad from Eluru, overturned while negotiating a turn at Jubilee Nagar.

On November 4, 2025, one person was killed, and eight others were injured when a private bus rammed into a truck in Andhra Pradesh’s Sri Sathya Sai district. The accident occurred near Dhamajipalli in Chennakothapalle mandal when the bus belonging to Jabbar Travels hit the truck from behind while negotiating the turn.

Three people were killed when a private bus caught fire after colliding with a container lorry in Andhra Pradesh’s Nandyal district on January 22, 2026. The bus lost control after suffering a tyre burst, and after jumping the road divider, collided with a lorry coming from the opposite direction.

The bus, which was on its way to Hyderabad from Nellore in Andhra Pradesh, and the container truck carrying motorcycles, caught fire as a result of the collision.

Police said the drivers of both the vehicles and the cleaner of the lorry were killed. All the passengers survived. Of the 36 passengers onboard, four sustained minor fractures and were admitted to a hospital.

Voicing concern over increasing road accidents, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, in November last year, directed officials to go for third-party auditing on road accidents to know the causes.

Third-party auditing is expected to help in ascertaining if an accident occurred because of some defect in the vehicle, lapse on the part of the driver, or gaps in road engineering works.

The Chief Minister expressed concern over the deaths of 6,433 people in 15,462 road accidents during 2025.

Andhra Pradesh stands in eighth place in road accidents in the country.

The officials said that one-third of accidents were caused by two-wheelers, and 53 per cent were self-accidents involving cars and two-wheelers.

The CM instructed the officials to inquire into the reasons for the high number of deaths in road accidents in Nellore, Tirupati, Palnadu, Annamayya, and Kakinada districts.

Officials also said that 79 per cent of accidents occur due to over-speeding, three per cent due to wrong-side driving, and one per cent due to alcohol and mobile phones. While 42 per cent of accidents occur on national highways, 21 per cent of accidents occur on state highways.

–IANS

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