Woman breaks leg in MTR misstep
A 79-year-old woman broke her right leg when she missed her step and fell between a train and the platform at an MTR station yesterday.
The woman, identified only as Lei, was boarding a north-bound train at Mong Kok East station after shopping and meeting friends when the accident happened at about 4.15pm.
Her right leg went into the 22-centimetre gap to her knee while her upper body stayed in the train.
Firemen took about 10 minutes to free her and she was taken to Kwong Wah Hospital in Yau Ma Tei, where she was in stable condition last night.
Her cousin, who was with her, said Lei appeared to be rushing onto the train and no one had pushed her.
The cousin said Lei used to live in Hong Kong but had moved to the mainland and often crossed the border to shop. She was heading for Tai Po when the accident happened.
Repeating comments made after similar accidents over the years, an MTR spokeswoman said the company was testing a mechanical gap-filler system at Lo Wu station and might adopt it at other stations.
The Kowloon-Canton Railway Corporation came up with the idea for the system in 2005 when it was running the East Rail line before the MTR took over KCR operations.
The spokeswoman said platform accident statistics were not available yesterday.
In December 2007, a four-year-old girl fell onto the track after a similar misstep at the same platform. She was rescued by her father and suffered slight head injuries.
