Overview
- Police said RFSL tests confirmed rider B. Shiva Shankar had consumed alcohol before his bike skidded on NH-44 near Chinna Tekuru, was dragged about 200 metres by a Hyderabad–Bengaluru sleeper coach, and the resulting fuel-fed blaze killed 19 passengers as 27 escaped.
- Driver Miriyala Lakshmaiah was arrested and found not to be intoxicated, and V. Kaveri Travels owner Vemuri Vinod Kumar was added as an accused, while a separate case was registered against the deceased biker under BNS Sections 281, 125(a) and 106(1) based on forensic findings and the pillion rider’s complaint.
- Investigators are probing safety lapses and compliance issues flagged by survivors who reported missing or inaccessible emergency equipment, along with checks on the driver’s licensing credentials and the bus’s sleeper conversion and inter-State registrations.
- Hyderabad Police Commissioner V. C. Sajjanar announced zero-tolerance for drunk driving as Cyberabad police reported hundreds of weekend DUI cases, Kerala’s Transport Department prepared a crackdown on luxury and sleeper operators, and MSRTC launched a ‘Sleeper Bus Passenger Safety Guidance’ campaign.
- Authorities said DNA identification is in progress and bodies are being handed over to families as reports arrive, following on-site postmortems of the 19 victims.