Hyderabad: At least 30 passengers were injured, three of them critically, when an RTC bus bound for Kurnool in Andhra Pradesh rammed into a container truck early on Wednesday. Most of the 63 passengers on board were travelling to their hometown for Sankranti.According to police officials, the accident occurred near Macharam village in Mahbubnagar district along the Hyderabad-Bengaluru national highway at around 1.30 am. “The bus rammed into the container truck from behind at a speed of around 80 to 90 kmph. We suspect the driver may have dozed off while driving, leading to the accident,” an official from Jadcherla police station said. A case has been registered against the bus driver, and further investigation is underway.RTC officials said the bus driver, Karthik, is also among those injured. “All the injured passengers were immediately shifted to Jadcherla hospital. Later, 30 of them were referred to the Mahabubnagar govt general hospital in four ambulances for further treatment,” said Narender, controller of the Kollapur depot.Visuals from the accident site showed that the bus sustained severe damage to its front portion. A doctor at the Mahabubnagar govt hospital said that while 20 passengers suffered major injuries, 10 sustained minor injuries and were discharged by evening. “Three patients, including the bus driver, remain under observation. The driver suffered blunt abdominal trauma, while two others sustained head injuries. Their condition is stable,” the doctor said.The accident led to heavy traffic congestion on the national highway, with vehicles backed up for nearly three kilometres towards Kurnool, as a large number of people were travelling to their native places in Andhra Pradesh for the Sankranti.Incidentally, NH 44 has recorded some of the deadliest road accidents in 2025. One of the worst was a bus fire near Chinnatekuru in Kurnool district that claimed 20 lives. In Nov 2025, a Hyderabad resident was killed, and at least eight passengers suffered injuries when a bus travelling from Bengaluru to Hyderabad hit another vehicle and overturned on NH-44.In the same month, over 30 passengers had a narrow escape when a private bus rammed into a tanker carrying hydrochloric acid on the Macharam flyover in Mahabubnagar. In Sept, two people were killed and two others injured in a road accident on the same highway at Rajapur mandal in Mahabubnagar.
