Kurnool Bus Tragedy: Driver Escaped Fire By Jumping Out Through Passenger Door

The driver of the Bengaluru-bound bus that caught fire in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district on Friday, claiming 20 people, escaped the blaze by jumping out through the passenger door but failed to grasp

the severity of the situation, police said on Saturday.

Both the driver, 42-year-old Miriyala Lakshmaiah, and the additional driver are currently in police custody. A case was registered on Friday in connection with the tragedy.

19 passengers and a motorbike rider were charred to death when the private bus collided with a two-wheeler at Chinnatekuru village in Kurnool district. Out of 44 passengers on board, several managed to escape the flames.

“Once the fire started (and) the bus came to a halt, through the passenger door he (Lakshmaiah) jumped out. He did not understand the intensity,” Kurnool superintendent of police Vikrant Patil told PTI.

After escaping the fire, Lakshmaiah woke up the additional driver, who had been sleeping in the luggage compartment beneath the bus. Realizing they could not enter the vehicle, both men used a rod meant for changing tyres to break window panes, helping some passengers flee the burning bus, Patil said.

Onlookers also helped by breaking windows, while some passengers smashed them from inside in a desperate attempt to escape. However, the fire quickly engulfed the entire vehicle, forcing Lakshmaiah to flee the scene.

Police later detained him in Kurnool and held him responsible for the disaster, booking him for negligence and overspeeding under sections 125(a) (endangering human life) and 106(1) (causing death by negligence) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) Act.

The fire was triggered after the bus collided with a motorcycle whose fuel cap was open, causing the fuel to ignite.

The bus, operated by V Kaveri Travels and registered in Daman and Diu, held an all-India permit. Police have seized relevant documents and are investigating whether proper fire safety measures were in place.