At least 20 people were killed and more than two dozen injured when a passenger bus collided with a truck in southern India early Monday, the second fatal highway crash in as many days.
The public transport bus, carrying around 70 passengers, was travelling to Hyderabad city when the accident occurred near the town of Chevalla in Telangana’s Rangareddy district.
The truck, carrying a load of concrete stone chips, was coming from the opposite direction and slammed head-on into the bus, local officials said.
K Chandrakala, a district officer overseeing rescue work at the site, confirmed the details of the collision. He said rescue operations took several hours as emergency workers struggled to extract passengers trapped in the wreckage.
The impact crushed the front of the bus, leaving the driver and several passengers pinned inside twisted metal.
“The gravel from the truck fell into the bus once the collision happened. This aggravated the situation and caused more casualties,” a police officer said, describing how the truck’s load scattered across the vehicle, worsening the injuries and blocking escape routes.
Medical teams moved the injured to nearby hospitals, while bystanders and police joined efforts to pull survivors from the wreckage.
Rajendra Prasad, head of the hospital in Chevalla, said 20 bodies had arrived at its mortuary.
The bodies would be handed over to the families after verification, he said.
🚨 Tragic Accident in Telangana 💔
— Gaffar (@gaffar5593) November 3, 2025
A truck driving on the wrong side crashed head-on into a TGRTC bus near Meerjaguda, Chevella (Ranga Reddy district), leaving 16 dead and several injured.
The truck, loaded with gravel, crushed the front of the bus, trapping passengers inside.… pic.twitter.com/GSHhwEkSee
Prime minister Narendra Modi expressed grief and offered condolences to the families who lost their loved ones. “The loss of lives due to a mishap in the Rangareddy district of Telangana is deeply saddening. My thoughts are with the affected people and their families during this difficult time. Praying for the speedy recovery of the injured,” Mr Modi said on social media.
In another accident, at least 10 people were killed and several injured when a speeding dumper truck lost control and rammed into multiple vehicles in the Loha Mandi area of Jaipur city in the western state of Rajasthan at around 1pm local time on Monday.
The truck overturned after hitting a divider, crushing several cars and two-wheelers. Bystanders caught the driver, who was rescued from the crowd and taken to a police station, NDTV reported.
Police cordoned off the area and diverted traffic while rescue work continued at the site.
The injured were taken to the Kanwatia Hospital and the Sawai Man Singh Hospital.
The accident came hours after another major crash in Rajasthan left 15 people dead near Matoda village on the Bharat Mala Highway.
The back-to-back accidents have renewed concerns over India’s road safety record. Thousands of people die every year in the South Asian nation in accidents caused by speeding, overloading and poor road conditions.
India’s roads remain among the most dangerous in the world, seeing nearly 172,000 deaths in 2023 – an average of one every three minutes – according to data cited by road transport minister Nitin Gadkari.
While Mr Gadkari has blamed “human behaviour” for most road accidents, experts have argued that poor civil engineering practices – including flawed road design, substandard construction and weak compliance with safety norms – share equal blame.
“The most important culprits are civil engineers,” Mr Gadkari said earlier this year. “Even small things like the road signages and marking system are very poor in the country.”
