Trees and shrubbery on a curve may have blocked the vision of the lorry driver resulting in the tragic accident, in which 10 persons were killed, between a TSRTC bus and the lorry at Indrapalanagaram village in Nalgonda district. This is one of the observations made by the three-member technical committee sent by the Road Transport Authority (RTA) to inspect the accident site.
A senior RTA official said that another reason for the accident, which took place on Wednesday, may be the width of the road, which reduces from 7.4 meters to seven meters at the crash site, before which there is a curve. “Because of the trees on the curve, the driver may not have been able to see oncoming vehicles. These seem to be the prima facie reasons for the accident to have taken place,” he said.
The three-member committee sent a detailed report to the RTA along with pictures and description of the accident area to explain the cause of the accident.
“The area has been identified as accident-prone and people there have also stated that collisions have taken place in the past,” stated the RTA official.
The official further mentioned that there may be a need to bring down trees on the stretch to avoid such accidents in future. Apart from the crash site, the committee’s report showed that the lorry did not sustain much damage, unlike the bus.
The Narketpally depot TSRTC bus was proceeding to Nalgonda from Bhongir when a lorry coming in the opposite direction collided with it.
Ten passengers who were sitting on the right side of the bus, including the driver, were killed on the spot since that side of it took more damage due to the intensity of collision.
Sunil Sharma, Principal Secretary, R&B and Transport Department, said that they would write to the NHAI making of the Chityal-Bhongir stretch four-lane as it also connects two busiest highways NH-65 (Hyderabad-Vijayawada) and NH-163 (Hyderabad-Bhoopalapatnam) in the country.
