Police say the motorcycle collided with a road divider at around 3 am, killing a drunken Shankar instantly. His friend Swamy, who was riding pillion, was thrown across the road and briefly lost consciousness. When he regained consciousness, he saw his friend’s body lying on the road, with the motorcycle beside him. Swamy did not move it.
Published Oct 26, 2025 | 5:52 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 26, 2025 | 5:52 PM
CCTV footage shows B Shiva Shankar twice at a liquor shop hours before the incident.
Synopsis: Fresh CCTV footage and an investigation into Friday’s Kurnool bus fire, which killed 19 passengers, have revealed that the accident was triggered by a drunk motorcyclist whose crashed bike was left on the highway. Footage shows B Shiva Shankar buying alcohol before hitting a road divider around 3 am, which killed him instantly. Police say that if the pillion rider, Swamy, who was thrown from the bike in the crash, had moved the motorcycle before the Bengaluru-bound sleeper bus arrived, the lives of the passengers could have been saved.
New CCTV footage and a detailed police investigation have revealed how the death of a drunk biker on a dark stretch of highway set off a chain of events that led to the fiery crash of a Bengaluru-bound sleeper bus in Andhra Pradesh’s Kurnool district, killing 19 passengers in the early hours of Friday, October 26.
At around 6.30 pm on Thursday, CCTV footage from a liquor shop captured B Shiva Shankar buying alcohol. Two hours later, he returned to the same shop for more. By the early hours of the next morning, he was riding his black Pulsar motorcycle through Kalluru mandal, with his friend Swamy as pillion.
Police say the motorcycle hit a road divider at around 3 am, killing Shankar instantly. Swamy was thrown across the road and briefly lost consciousness. When he came to, he saw his friend’s body lying on the road, the motorcycle beside him. Swamy did not move it.
Over the next 15 minutes, four buses passed the spot. Each driver noticed the obstruction and managed to steer clear. The fifth vehicle, however, did not.
“If Swamy had moved the bike off the road, those 19 people would still be alive,” a police official.
A Kaveri Travels sleeper coach travelling from Hyderabad to Bengaluru approached the stretch near Chinna Tekuru village, about 20 km from Kurnool town.
It was a dark early morning hour. The bus, carrying 51 passengers, was driven by Miriyala Lakshmaiah.
Lakshmaiah later told police that he failed to see the motorcycle lying in the middle of the road. The bus struck it at high speed. The friction caused by the bus dragging the bike ignited a fire, as petrol had leaked by then. Within minutes, flames engulfed the vehicle.
Most passengers were asleep inside. While some managed to escape by breaking the glass windows, others could not.
“The fire spread before most could react. Some managed to break windows. Others could not get out of their berths,” said Ramesh, one of the lucky survivors, describing the chaos that followed.
Twenty-seven passengers escaped, though four sustained serious burns. In less than 20 minutes, 20 people, including Shankar, had died.
Kurnool police later traced and questioned Swamy, who survived the accident. Investigators believe that the decision not to remove the motorcycle from the road proved fatal.
“If Swamy had moved the bike off the road, those 19 people would still be alive,” a police official said.
On Friday, footage from a petrol pump, widely shared on social media, showed Shankar refuelling his motorcycle just minutes before the crash.
Police have filed an FIR against bus driver Miriyala Lakshmaiah and operator Vemuri Vinod Kumar of V Kaveri Travels under BNS Sections 125(a) and 106(1) for rash driving and culpable homicide through negligence.
Authorities are awaiting the post-mortem report to confirm Shankar’s blood alcohol levels, though preliminary evidence indicates intoxication.
Transport department officials are also examining whether the bus had valid safety certification and whether the company complied with operating norms.
(Edited by Dese Gowda with inputs from Sumit Jha)
