'Late Alert Before Fatal Bus Crash Unacceptable'

The chairman of the Hong Kong Tunnel and Highway Employees’ General Union said on Wednesday that it is unacceptable that Western Harbour Tunnel Company staff took almost an hour to notice the broken down lorry involved in a fatal traffic accident on Monday.

The truck remained on the West Kowloon Highway after it broke down shortly after 9 am, and a double-decker bus smashed into it at about 10:30, killing the drivers of both vehicles and injuring more than a dozen passengers.

The company operating the Western Harbour Tunnel said it only found out about the broken down lorry at 10:12 am, shortly before the crash.

The union’s chairman, Cheuk Wo-sin, said the tunnel company should monitor its surveillance cameras and staff should conduct patrols at intervals of between 15 and 20 minutes.

He noted that the response time for the two other cross-harbour tunnels, which are owned by the government, is around two minutes inside the tunnels, and five minutes outside.

Cheuk told RTHK's Janice Wong that the government should investigate why the lorry stayed on the road for such a long time. But he conceded that it probably cannot impose any punishment on the tunnel company even if it’s found to be at fault.