Vijayawada West Bypass EV Car Fire: Four Dead After Crash; Cause Under Investigation

What happened

On the evening of Monday, 12 October 2026, an electric car carrying five people hit a roadside railing on the Vijayawada West Bypass in NTR district, Andhra Pradesh, and caught fire. Four people died and a woman was critically injured. They were a family from Nunna, on the edge of Vijayawada, and relatives, coming home from a family function at Namburu in Guntur district. Sakshi reported that the function was a half-saree (oni) ceremony.

Reports place the crash between Ambapuram and Gollapudi (The Hans India) or between Gollapudi and Paidurupadu (Sakshi). Hindustan Times, quoting police, put the time at about 6 pm. Deccan Chronicle reported that the fire station received the call at about 5.04 pm, after a doctor driving towards Eluru raised the alarm.

Police told Hindustan Times that preliminary findings suggest overspeeding. Deccan Chronicle, citing preliminary police inquiries, reported that the car was doing nearly 150 kmph, that the driver appears to have lost control while overtaking another vehicle, and that the battery exploded on impact. These are early police accounts. The cause of the crash and of the fire has not been officially confirmed.

Accounts of the last minutes differ. A senior police official told Hindustan Times that the four were trapped inside and died on the spot. A police officer told The Hindu that passers-by pulled the victims out before the car caught fire, and local residents told the paper that by the time they got people out, they had died. Sakshi reported on 13 October that the doors flew open on impact and the occupants were thrown onto the road. Only the post-mortem reports and the police inquiry can settle this.

The people

All the reports that give names list the driver, Kommareddy Ramdev (also reported as Ramdev Reddy), of Nunna, and his mother, Kommareddy Aruna, among the dead. His age is given as 38, 39 or 42, and hers as between 55 and 65. Ramdev’s young son also died. The Hans India named the boy as Mahatra, aged one and a half; The Hindu and IANS said he was three.

The fourth person who died is reported as a woman named Vijaya from Namburu, but outlets disagree on who she was. The Hindu called her T. Vijaya; Hindustan Times called her Tiguru Vijaya, 30, and said she was Ramdev’s sister; The Hans India gave Bhimavarapu Vijaya, 48; and Sakshi gave Bhimavarapu Vijaya, 68, a neighbour.

The injured woman was named by The Hindu and IANS as T. Aruna and by The Hans India as Tiyyagura Aruna, 50, of Mehdipatnam, Hyderabad. Sakshi named her Tiyyagura Swarna and said she lives in Hyderabad. Deccan Chronicle reversed the two women, listing a Tiguru Aruna among the dead and B. Vijaya as admitted to hospital. Most reports agree on the version we use here, but the names are not final until police publish them.

Local people helped shift her to hospital, ACP Durga Rao of Vijayawada West told the Times of India. The Hans India reported that she was later moved to a private hospital on doctors’ advice. Her condition was described as critical. We found no later update on her health up to 16 October 2026.

Response and investigation

Fire tenders put out the blaze and the car was completely gutted, NTR District Fire Officer A.V. Shankar Rao told The Hindu. Local residents told the same paper that the car burned for more than 15 minutes before the fire tenders arrived. Police later removed the wreck with a crane and cleared the road.

The West Zone police registered a case (The Hindu); other reports name Bhavanipuram police as handling it. A police officer said they were examining CCTV footage and talking to eyewitnesses. The bodies were sent to the Government General Hospital, Vijayawada, for post-mortem.

Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu, Deputy Chief Minister K. Pawan Kalyan and IT and HRD Minister Nara Lokesh expressed grief and asked officials to make sure the injured woman got the best treatment. According to ap7am, Pawan Kalyan asked officials to look into the technical reasons why the electric car caught fire.

By 16 October 2026 we could not find any published finding on the cause, the make and model of the car confirmed by police, a transport department report or any compensation announcement.

Why this matters

NCRB recorded 1,75,142 road accident deaths in India in 2024, and put 1,01,649 of them down to overspeeding and 46,132 to dangerous or careless driving and overtaking. A crash at highway speed into a concrete railing leaves very little time to get out, whatever fuel the car uses.

Electric cars add one more risk. If the battery pack is crushed or pierced, its cells can overheat one after another, a process called thermal runaway. The fire can grow fast, gives off toxic smoke, is hard to put out with water and can flare up again hours later. Some electric cars also use electronic door handles, which can be hard to work after a crash if the power is cut.

Lessons for families on the road

• Get out first, then call. After a crash, if you can move, unbuckle, help the children and get everyone out at once. Do not stay to collect bags or phones. Move well away from the car and stay upwind of the smoke.
• Know your car’s manual door release. Many new cars, electric ones in particular, have a mechanical release inside the door. Read the owner’s manual tonight and show every regular passenger, including grandparents, where it is.
• Keep a seat-belt cutter and window breaker within the driver’s reach. Fix it to the dashboard or the driver’s door pocket, not the boot.
• Put small children in a child seat, in the back. A baby held on someone’s lap cannot be protected in a crash. A properly fitted child seat keeps the child in place and makes it quicker to lift them out.
• Slow down on bypasses and flyover approaches. Overtake only from the right, and only when the road ahead is clear. Never squeeze past a lorry on the left.
• Treat a smoking battery as a fire. If you see smoke from under an electric car, hear popping or hissing, or smell something sweet or chemical, get everyone out and away. Do not try to fight a battery fire with a small extinguisher.
• Call 112. Give the road name, the direction of travel and the nearest landmark, and say that it is an electric car. You can also call 101 for the fire brigade and 108 for an ambulance.
• Burns first aid. Cool the burn under cool, clean running water for 20 minutes. Even 10 minutes helps if that’s all you can manage. No ice, toothpaste, oil or butter. Remove rings and watches near the burn, cover it loosely with cling film or a clean cloth and get medical help.

What is still not known

Police have not confirmed the exact speed, whether another vehicle was involved, how the fire started or what part the battery played. The make and model of the car have not been confirmed by police. One Telugu outlet named a model, but we could not confirm it from a second source, so we have left it out. It is also not clear whether all four died in the fire or from injuries in the crash. The names and ages of two of the women differ between reports. We will update this page when the police or the transport department publish findings.