On the morning of 12 March 1995, passengers boarded a J. Jayalalitha Transport Corporation (JJTC) bus from Broadway in Madras (as Chennai was then called). The bus was going to Bangalore (now Bengaluru). Over an hour into the journey, the bus was approaching Hotel Greenland, a highway restaurant in Sunguvarchathram, about 55 km from Madras, where long-distance buses used to stop for refreshments.
Elsewhere, in K. Podavur village in neighboring Kancheepuram district, scores of men, women and children boarded a tractor. They were on their way to Palla Mulachur to attend the betrothal of a young woman, Kokila.
Little did the people in the two vehicles know that their fates would meet shortly that day at Senthamangalam village near Sunguvarchathram.
Around noon, a speeding tanker entered the highway, which was then the only road with lush agricultural fields on both sides. The driver tried to overtake the tractor, rammed into its front and rammed into the oncoming JJTC bus. In a flash, all three vehicles were engulfed in flames. In the next “three to four minutes”, the flames engulfed at least 49 people, including women and children. Eight fire tenders from Kancheepuram, Tiruvallur and Madras took two hours to douse the fire.
The death toll was based on skulls found at the site. “This included 33 in the tractor, 12 in the bus and two in the tanker. Skulls were found inside the bus, under it and in the semi-trailer. Some of the victims in the bus and the tanker were found sitting. One of the passengers of the bus with a child in his arms was found in the same position, charred,” described a report in The Hindu.
“It was a pile of skulls and bones, no flesh in the tractor shortly after the accident… The conductor’s charred body was found on the (bus) footboard, possibly indicating his futile attempt to escape the leaping flames,” the report said.
After the collision, the flames jumped to the grass and thorny bushes on the side of the road, charring the greenery. Even the snake in the bush was roasted alive.
Lakshmi Ammal, who was working in a nearby paddy field, told this newspaper that she heard a loud bang and “flames jumped as high as a coconut tree” in the stunt. She heard screams but only for a few seconds and from then on it was just crackling flames.
Flames don’t usually jump that high. But the tanker from Thane in Maharasthra was carrying a shipment of benzene, an aromatic compound that is highly volatile and extremely flammable. “Simply breathing in a hydrocarbon extracted from diesel can be fatal. When it vaporizes with the surrounding air, the slightest spark — even friction — can ignite it,” the report said.
Series of accidents
Incidentally, it was the third fire in the country caused by vehicles carrying flammable chemicals that month. Just days earlier, an inferno on the Delhi-Haridwar highway killed more than 20 people when a truck carrying concentrated sulfuric acid caught fire after a tire burst. A tanker carrying LPG from Cochin Refinery Limited also overturned and engulfed in flames near Cochin (now Kochi).
Among those who died on the spot were 34 villagers on the tractor, including 12 women and eight children. Most of the children who would otherwise be playing in the village jumped into the car hoping for a joy ride, just 15 minutes before the inferno burned them. Twenty-year-old Vijayakumar of K. Podavur lost his father, mother and sister in the fire. Among the dead were the bus crew and 10 passengers, and the tanker driver and cleaner.
Many others who suffered burns were taken to Kancheepuram Government Hospital, Madras Kilpauk Medical College Hospital and Sirperumbudur Government Hospital.
As many people were burned, it was initially feared that the toll could rise to over 100. However, over the next few days, the toll was put at 54, with some of those admitted to hospitals succumbing.
Some lucky survivors like Swaminathan, sitting at the back of the bus, jumped out and broke the glass pane. Five passengers from the tractor also managed to get out in time. Another man, Paranthaman of Athabakkam village, was lucky in a different sense. Minutes before the accident, he was praying in a local church and looking for a lift from a tanker loaded with benzene. The driver did not stop. He later picked up speed and proceeded to find the tanker in flames.
End: Two months later, Kokila got married. This infuriated 46-year-old villager Chengalvarayan, whose brother was aboard the ill-fated tailor’s tractor on the day of her planned engagement. He stabbed her father Singarama, causing injuries to his shoulder and face, and asked, “How dare you celebrate your daughter’s wedding when the village is still mourning?”
Published – 29 October 2025 05:00 IST
