Tourist trapped in platform gap
A 75-year-old British tourist was injured when she stepped into a 10cm gap between her train and the platform and became trapped when alighting from a carriage at Admiralty MTR station yesterday.
It was the second such incident in 13 days, and the MTR Corporation later revealed that about 100 passengers had fallen into platform gaps in the first 10 months of the year, an average of about one every three days.
Yesterday's victim, whose surname is Downey, was leaving a Chai Wan-bound train with her husband when the accident happened at about 12.50pm. 'The woman missed her step and her right leg slipped into the gap between the train and platform,' an officer said.
Her leg went into the gap up to her thigh. An MTR spokesman said station staff immediately attended her and called firemen, who took 14 minutes to free her after arriving.
Downey's injured right knee was bandaged by paramedics. She was then taken by ambulance to Queen Mary Hospital, where she received treatment and was discharged.
Downey told reporters at the hospital the platform gap was not too large and the accident was her fault.
Sheung Wan-Wan Chai services were disrupted for about 25 minutes and returned to normal at 1.15pm.
On November 10, a 79-year-old woman was injured when she stepped into the gap between a train and the platform at Mong Kok East.
The MTR system, with 84 stations, recorded an average of 10 such accidents a month between January and October this year, a spokeswoman said. Asked whether the figures indicated a serious safety problem, she replied: 'There are about 120 million passenger trips a month and the number of times people are boarding and getting off a train reaches more than 220 million.'
Frequent announcements were broadcast on trains and in stations to warn commuters of the platform gap. She said rubber gap fillers had been installed at some stations and regular campaigns were held to raise safety awareness among the public.
