KURNOOL BUS FIRE: OVERSIGHT ASLEEP AT THE WHEEL OF SAFETY

EVERY so often, a tragedy jolts us out of our collective slumber but only for a while.

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The bus accident in Kurnool district of Andhra Pradesh on October 24, in which 19 people were charred to death, is a grim reminder of how little changes despite the recurring horror. The Bengaluru-bound bus from Hyderabad, owned by a private operator, hit a bike and caught fire. Within minutes, the bus turned into a fireball-yet another statistic in India's endless catalogue of preventable road disasters.

In the last decade, over a hundred people have died in similar bus accidents across the country-from Maharashtra to Tamil Nadu, from Rajasthan to Andhra. Days before the Kurnool tragedy, a similar inferno in Rajasthan claimed 20 lives.