Mahabubnagar bus fire: Crime Investigation Team finds Volvo bus faulty

Hyderabad- Additional director general of the Crime Investigation Department, T. Krishna Prasad has said that the CID will recommend to the government that the Volvo bus service should be stopped as investigations have shown that the design of the bus is defective. The CID claims that the faulty design of the Volvo bus is one of the three major causes of the fire that claimed 45 lives at Palem in Mahbubnagar district on October 30, 2013. The design faults pertain to the location of the fuel tanks, the plastic material of the tanks, bus floor made of PVC material, and the placement of the batteries.

Mr Krishna Prasad said, “The defects in the design of the Volvo buses do not make them roadworthy. This is our finding. We will write to the Government of India about it. We will file the chargesheet soon. Volvo as a company has also been made an accused in the case.” The other two causes of the fire, found by CID investigators, are the negligence of the driver and faulty road engineering.