The bus that caught fire after coming into contact with a motorcycle in the early hours of Friday in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool purportedly did not collide with a moving bike, but ran over one that had already met with an accident, the pillion rider on the bike told police.
A rupture in the fuel tank after the Hyderabad–Bengaluru V-Kaveri Travels bus went over the bike caused a fire in which 19 passengers died. The man who was driving the bike, Kurnool resident B Siva Shankar (24), also died, but according to what the pillion rider told police, Siva likely died before the bus approached as he had fallen when the bike skidded on the wet highway that rainy night.
Kurnool Superintendent of Police Vikrant Patil told The Indian Express that police questioned Siva’s friend, Yerri Swamy (20), who was riding pillion. “The friend told us that they were both going to Dhone, which is 40 km away, when the bike skidded and they fell. Siva appeared to have died on the spot, and this person (the pillion rider) fell on the median. He got up and dragged Siva to the side of the highway. He was about to pick up the motorcycle when the bus ran over it,” the officer said.
According to the SP, Yerri Swamy works in the garbage disposal department of the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation and had come to Kurnool to attend a wedding. He is originally from the same village as Siva, but now lives in Hyderabad. Police released him after taking his statement. On Thursday night, he had a late dinner with Siva and was supposed to catch a train from Dhone, where Siva was going to drop him. “They filled petrol at a fuel outlet 2-3 km from Chinnatekur, after which the mishap occurred,” Patil said. Police have retrieved CCTV footage from the fuel outlet.
The CCTV footage shows Siva arriving at the fuel station at 2.24 am on the motorcycle along with his friend. Siva is then seen skidding and almost falling off the bike as he leaves the outlet. The CCTV camera also caught the ill-fated bus passing by the same fuel outlet at 2.39 am. The mishap occurred a few minutes later, with officials putting the time of the accident at 2.45 am. After the bus went over the bike, it dragged it for 300 metres before coming to a halt, as per officials.
Siva was from B Thandrapadu village in Kurnool, about 20 km away from the Chinnatekur area where the mishap occurred. He worked in the granite works business.
On Thursday evening, he left home after telling his mother, B Yashoda, that he had some work at Dhone. Until the CCTV footage was found and Siva’s friend gave his statement, police were trying to figure out if the bus collided with the motorcycle while he was driving back home or if the motorcycle had already met with an accident.
