Chevella tragedy: Wife takes bus, husband boards train; fate separates couple

Kishtapuram Venkatamma, 21, from Tandur, died in the Chevella bus accident on Monday after choosing to travel by RTC bus instead of a train with her husband Prasad. The crash killed 19 people, leaving families in deep grief

Hyderabad: A young couple’s weekend trip to their hometown ended in tragedy when the wife, who chose to travel by bus instead of train, lost her life in the tragic Chevella bus accident, which occurred on Monday morning.

Kishtapuram Venkatamma (21) and her husband Prasad, residents of Valmiki Nagar in Tandur town, had gone home for the weekend to spend time with their family. Prasad is employed at a software firm in Hyderabad, while Venkatamma was working at a local supermarket.

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After spending two days in Tandur, the couple decided to return to Hyderabad early on Monday. They had initially planned to travel together by train, scheduled to depart at 3:30 am from Tandur. However, Venkatamma reportedly felt uncomfortable with the early hour travel and decided to take an RTC bus instead. Prasad boarded the train as planned.

Around dawn, the RTC bus in which Venkatamma was travelling met with a horrific collision with the gravel-laden truck near Mirzaguda in Chevella. The impact crushed the bus, leaving her along with 18 others dead and several others injured.

Venkatamma was among those who died on the spot. However, police only later confirmed her identity and informed her husband, who was devastated upon receiving the news after reaching Hyderabad.

Family members broke down in grief, saying she would have survived had she travelled with her husband on the train. “She said she would come a little later by bus. None of us imagined it would be her last journey,” a relative said.