Vijayawada: Fourteen passengers trapped inside a flaming private bus were charred to death and 28 fellow travellers were injured early Thursday after a head-on collision with a tipper truck in Andhra Pradesh’s Markapuram district sparked a fire that engulfed both vehicles.The 5.45am road tragedy near Rayavaram village was the fourth instance in six months of a passenger bus catching fire in AP.The semi-sleeper bus had halted multiple times due to technical glitches during the journey, some survivors said. The vehicle stopped for an hour at Yerragondapalem, where the crew conducted minor repairs before resuming the trip.Preliminary findings suggest a “steering-wheel jam” shortly before the collision, raising questions about the vehicle’s maintenance.The Arunachal Pradesh-registered bus, operated by Harikrishna Travels of Hyderabad, was ferrying 41 passengers from Nirmal in Telangana to Nellore in AP when the accident occurred. The tipper truck’s fuel tank exploded in the collision, triggering a blaze that gave the passengers – most of them asleep – no chance to escape.Sources said the sensor-operated main bus door got locked after the crash, trapping everyone inside. A few passengers smashed windowpanes and crawled out. Residents of nearby villages pulled out some others to safety. The victims were all towards the rear of the bus.By the time rescue teams reached the accident site, 14 passengers were dead. Locals said the bus was in flames soon after the collision and the blaze was so intense that the vehicle was reduced to ashes even as firefighters attempted to extinguish the flames. The sleeper berths above the seats may have made it doubly difficult for them to try getting out.Most of the victims were from Kanigiri, Vinjamur and Udayagiri in Nellore district. They were identified as Ambati Anil and his five-month-old son, Bandaru Padma, Muthangi Venkateswarlu, Tammisetti Pichamma, Tammisetti Rukmini, Ramadevi, Podiri Mahendra, N Prabhavati, Kathi Jayaramulu, Atmakoor Chini, Devendra Ramaiah, Chaitra and Jyoti. The bus driver, P Yuvaraju (23), and an assistant, P Mahendra Reddy (17), escaped with minor injuries. Officials said the death toll could increase, with some of the injured being hospitalised in critical condition. Survivors credited a co-passenger, Balaraju, with creating an escape route for them, ignoring his own safety. “Had he not broken several windows, many more lives would have been lost,” a survivor said.The bus had taken a less travelled, narrower road – Hyderabad-Nagarjunasagar-Vinukonda-Markapuram – instead of the main highway via Wadepalli-Dachepalli. The travel company chose that route because of business reasons.Home minister Vangalapudi Anitha, transport minister M Ramprasad Reddy and DGP Harish Kumar Gupta inspected the accident site later in the day. CM N Chandrababu Naidu and deputy CM Pawan Kalyan condoled the deaths and directed the authorities to ensure the best medical care for the injured.The state govt announced Rs 5 lakh each in compensation for the families of the victims and Rs 2 lakh each for the injured. PM Narendra Modi sanctioned an additional Rs 2 lakh each in ex gratia to the kin of the deceased and Rs 50,000 for every injured.President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief over the tragedy.
