- Bus driver in Kurnool fire tragedy allegedly used a fake Class 10 certificate to obtain a driving licence
- Two men on a bike were drunk when they crashed. The bus ran over the bike and dragged it for several metres
- The bike's fuel tank caught fire, apparently due to friction, this led to the fire that engulfed the bus
A bus driver who got his licence based on a fake academic certificate, a biker who made the reckless choice of riding drunk and a travel company that bypassed guidelines during renovating the bus -- the fire tragedy in Andhra Pradesh's Kurnool, which has claimed 20 lives, shows how gaps in our road safety processes can have devastating consequences.
Miriyala Lakshmaiah, the driver of the double-decker bus that met with the horrific accident, has been arrested. The investigators have found that Lakshmaiah, who studied only up to Class 5, managed to get a heavy vehicle driving licence with a fake Class 10 certificate. According to licensing rules, anyone driving a transport vehicle needs to have studied at least up to Class 8. These rules, however, are often flouted, and people use fake academic documents to obtain their driving licence.
How Kurnool Tragedy Occurred
Late on Friday, two men on a bike met with an accident near Chinna Tekuru in Kurnool. The two-wheeler skidded off the road and hit the divider. Shiva Shankar, who was riding the bike, died in the crash. The pillion rider, Erri Swami, suffered injuries. After the crash, Erri dragged Shiva Shankar's body off the road and realised he was dead. Before he could remove the bike from the road, a bus ran it over. The two-wheeler was dragged under the bus. At some point, the bike's fuel tank exploded, apparently due to the friction. This triggered a blaze that engulfed the double-decker bus. Nineteen passengers were burnt alive, while the others managed to escape through an emergency window.
Biker Was Drunk: Police
Koya Praveen, Kurnool range's Deputy Inspector General of Police, told news agency PTI that they have received forensic confirmation that the two men on the bike -- Shankar and Swami-- were drunk. He said the two ate at a dhaba that night, and Swami admitted to consuming liquor. Police said they started for home around 2 am and Shiva planned to drop Swami home. They stopped at a petrol pump, where a CCTV camera captured them. Shankar is seen riding the bike rashly while exiting the petrol pump.
Hyderabad police commissioner VC Sajjanar has said drunk drivers are "terrorists" and that this was "not a road mishap but a criminal act of negligence". "Drunk drivers are terrorists and their actions are nothing short of acts of terror on our roads. The horrific Kurnool bus accident, which claimed the lives of 20 innocent people, was not an accident in the truest sense. It was a preventable massacre, caused by the reckless and irresponsible behavior of an intoxicated biker," the top cop posted on X. He said Hyderabad police will show "no mercy" to anyone driving drunk.
Why Bus Driver Is At Fault
Kurnool police chief Vikrant Patil told NDTV that two buses managed to dodge Shiva's motorcycle on the highway before this luxury bus ran it over. The police officer said that the drunk biker is at fault as far as the bike crash is concerned. But the negligence case against the bus driver remains open because he failed to spot a stationary obstruction on the road, he said.
The probe is also conducting a thorough investigation into the travel company that owns the bus. Multiple red flags contributed to the high death count: the illegal conversion to a sleeper coach, suspicious re-registration tactics to circumvent safety scrutiny, and survivor accounts confirming the unavailability of emergency tools like window-breaking hammers.
Rules Flouted, Passengers Travel At Own Risk
The Kurnool tragedy is yet another reminder of how the processes to ensure road safety are routinely flouted, putting passengers at risk. Getting a licence without taking a driving test is alarmingly common in India. As in this case, educational documents are forged and licences are provided to those who don't meet the criteria.
Drunk driving continues to be a major cause of road accidents and deaths. According to a report released by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, 2023 witnessed 2,690 road accidents due to drunk driving. These accidents claimed 1,442 lives. But despite regular awareness campaigns, the authorities have failed to check this menace.
