More than one car may have hit feral cattle in Lantau accident
Police agree with activists that heavy vehicle could have been involved in Lantau accident because of injuries and number of cattle killed
More than one vehicle could have been involved in the hit-and-run crash that killed eight cattle on Lantau early on Wednesday, police said yesterday.
A spokesman said investigators had not ruled out the possibility that other vehicles - or a different vehicle from the one owned by a woman arrested over the deaths - were involved in the accident.
This came as social network sites buzzed with speculation about the blame for the deaths and one woman described how she had been accosted and falsely accused in front of her four-year-old son.
Police chiefs meanwhile have promised to train officers to deal better with incidents involving Lantau's feral cattle after complaints about the initial reaction by the force.
The eight animals were left dead or dying by the roadside in Tong Fuk Village for several hours.
An expatriate woman resident of Tong Fuk was arrested later in the day after her Mitsubishi SUV was discovered in a nearby car park, dented and stained with blood and animal hair.
The 49-year-old, arrested on suspicion of cruelty to animals, was later bailed to report back to police next week.
But views expressed by a veterinarian at the scene and an animal protection group raised the question that a vehicle heavier than the woman's SUV must have been involved, pointing out the severity of the injuries and the number of cattle killed.
Members of the Lantau Buffalo Association met police yesterday to discuss their worries over how the case was being investigated, their suspicions about other vehicles and worries over speeding traffic on Lantau, which they say has killed 17 cattle this year.
After the meeting, chairwoman Ho Loy said she felt positive about how the police were treating the investigation.
"We have changed our views on how the case is being handled and I am satisfied the police are treating it seriously," Ho said.
She said police had agreed that the association's suspicion of another vehicle being involved was reasonable.
They also agreed to look at proposals to control the traffic and to include in their regular training programme workshops on how to deal with cases involving cattle.
Amid online speculation and comment, a woman made a long post on the association's Facebook page describing how she was wrongly accused by an irate mother.
"I denied it but she wasn't convinced and called me a coward," wrote the Tong Fuk resident, who drives a car similar to that of the arrested woman.
"My son … is now asking 'did you kill the cows, Mummy'?" she added.
