bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

hooksAmpRedirectArticle

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

paywallTypes

createdDate

publishedDate

sponsorType

urlAlias

moreOnThisArticles

commentCount

authorLocations

authors

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

articleSpeeches

socialHeadline

headline

images

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

sponsor

pdfFiles

seriesReverseOrder

series

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

readingTime

customTimezone

liveContents

Carrie Chan

Driver detained after accident  that left HK brothers orphaned

A holiday bus crash on the mainland  that orphaned two young Hong Kong brothers may have been caused by brake failure, survivors  said yesterday.

Investigators  refused to confirm that the driver - who was detained by police yesterday and who passengers said was not speeding - tried to slow down in perfect weather conditions but  could get no response from the brakes.

The accident happened  around the same time as another bus crash in Beijing in which two  Hong Kong people died, and  has prompted  renewed concern over road safety  across the border.

Travel agency representatives said relatives of the two boys - Choi Man-hin, eight, and Choi Ching-hin, nine - did not tell them of their parents' deaths, fearing it might affect their recovery from head and leg injuries received in the accident. Hospital staff said they  were in a stable condition, China News Service reported.

Their parents, Choi  Yam-hung, 43, and Hui Ping, 34, were killed when a tour bus carrying 22 passengers and driver Yang Shaoxiong   skidded and overturned while approaching a bridge on  a hairpin bend  in Longsheng county,  Guangxi, at about  10am on Friday.

Eight  injured travellers are still recovering  in three hospitals in Guilin,  while seven with   minor injuries flew back to Hong Kong  yesterday and were  sent to Princess Margaret Hospital.   With the exception of a 19-year-old woman who remained in stable condition,  they were all discharged later.

Lying on his bed at the Guilin Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, orphan Ching-hin could not remember what happened.

'I sat in the second last row and my parents were in the last [row],' he  said. 'Our heads hit the ground quite hard but I can't really remember anything about the accident.'

Traffic police in the county said rain  and slippery roads were factors behind the accident,  Xinhua news agency reported.

But the  guide for  the five-day-tour organised by Miramar Express  said  it was neither a rainy nor misty day.

'I don't believe the bus was speeding,' she said. 'But we were going down a slope and reached a U-shaped turn. The driver could not make the turn and apply the brakes before crashing [into the railings].'

Some of those who returned to Hong Kong yesterday echoed her view that the driver could not apply the brakes.

Guangxi Tourism Administration  said an investigation  was continuing.

Hong Kong Travel Industry Council executive director Joseph Tung Yao-chung  said it  had written to  the  administration calling for an investigation.

Given the  rising concerns over the welfare of Hong Kong residents   travelling overseas, Central Policy Unit chief Lau Siu-kai  yesterday revealed  the government was studying ways to establish a formal mechanism to help them in emergencies.

In Beijing, the widow and mother of a father and son killed in a collision between a tour bus and a truck on Friday, and two surviving young children, were at   a hotel after leaving  Qinghe emergency centre.



Bus crash survivors say brakes failed