Survivors recount horror of T’gana bus-truck collision
Dastagiri, a resident of Aluru village, barely three kilometres from the accident site, was among the locals who took part in the rescue operations. He said the stretch of the Chevella–Tandur highway had long been an accident-prone zone
For 45-year-old Yellaiah Goud, a driver by profession from Gandhi Nagar area in Tandur town in Vikarabad district, it was a routine Monday morning. Like any other day, he dropped his three daughters – Sai Priya, Tanusha and Nandini - at the bus stop and saw them boarding the Hyderabad-bound RTC bus.
Little did Goud know then that it would be his last goodbye to his daughters. Within a couple of hours of their leaving Tandur, he heard the news about the bus meeting with a ghastly accident near Chevella.
He rushed there immediately only to find the bodies of his daughters amidst the wreckage of the bus that was crushed under the lorry carrying tonnes of gravel. “It was only on October 15, I married off my eldest daughter and it was a festive time for all of us. Now, my three other daughters are gone,” Goud said at the Chevella government hospital.
A poor couple from Hajipur village of Vikarabad district — Kurugunta Bandeppe (45) and Lakshmi (43) — also died in the crash. Daily wage labourers by profession, the couple had boarded the bus early in the morning to visit Osmania Hospital in Hyderabad for Lakshmi’s medical tests, as she had been unwell for weeks.
Their decision to seek treatment turned fatal when the bus collided head-on with the tipper. Both died instantly. Their bodies were later shifted to Chevella Government Hospital. “Their daughters - Bhavani and Shiva Leela have become orphans. It was a heart-rending scene with the children weeping beside the lifeless bodies of their parents,” Ramana, an eye-witness said.
The victims also included Akhila Reddy, an MBA student from Lakshminarayanapur village. Her grieving mother collapsed at the accident site upon seeing her daughter’s body.
Another victim, Jayasudha, a mathematics teacher working on contract at the Social Welfare Gurukula School in Tholkata, was found trapped waist-deep in the gravel. Rescuers managed to pull her out alive, and she was rushed to NIMS Hospital with severe leg injuries. Four of her colleagues, who missed the bus by a few minutes, survived.
One of the survivors of the accident, who did not wish to be identified, said he had been dozing when the crash occurred. “A loud thud jolted me awake. The next moment, I found myself half-buried in gravel,” he recalled, visibly shaken. He said he was seated on the left side, three rows behind the conductor. We managed to climb out through a window, but those sitting behind the driver’s cabin couldn’t make it. Some of them died on the spot,” he told reporters from his hospital bed.
The survivor said he pushed open a window to crawl out and helped six others escape. “Later, another passenger broke the window panes to free more people,” he added, describing the chaotic rescue effort that followed before police and locals reached the spot.
“I was standing beside the conductor’s seat when the truck rammed into the right side of the bus, crushing all the seats behind the driver. The gravel fell directly onto the passengers. I managed to jump out with minor injuries,” Narsimhulu, a theatre artiste, said.
Dastagiri, a resident of Aluru village, barely three kilometres from the accident site, was among the locals who took part in the rescue operations. He said the stretch of the Chevella–Tandur highway had long been an accident-prone zone.
Former ministers Sabitha Indra Reddy and Rohit Reddy faced public ire, while tension prevailed near Mirzaguda, where locals clashed with police and refused to allow the damaged bus to be removed.
State IT minister D Sridhar Babu said there was no negligence on the part of the government with regard to the expansion of the Chevella highway. He pointed out that certain environmentalists filed petitions with the National Green Tribunal, which stalled the road expansion work for several months.
