Christmas holiday visit ends in tragedy

A TRIP to visit his family during the Christmas and New Year school holidays ended in tragedy when 18-year-old Jody Fullerton became one of the 20 victims of the Lan Kwai Fong disaster. A student at the University of Winnepeg in Canada, Jody was visiting his parents, Brian and Lolly Fullerton, brother Andrew and sister Sarah. Before graduating last June, Jody had been a pupil at the Hongkong International School and yesterday headmaster Mr David Rittman said the young Canadian had been a popular student. ''This is so unfortunate. It's so senseless . . . he was just home on leave.'' The Fullerton family live in Kennedy Road government quarters. They declined to comment yesterday, other than to ask that instead of flowers, donations should be sent to the International School, to be forwarded to the Pattaya Orphanage in Thailand. Mr Rittman explained: ''We do a programme where we send students to work in the orphanage every spring. Jody went a year ago and his parents knew he was moved by the experience.'' Another victim, 15-year-old Michael Edward Frith, was the son of police Chief Superintendent Gerard Frith, who is the Shamshuipo district commander. He was on Christmas leave from a boarding school in the UK. He has an elder brother who is a student at the Island School. Mr Frith, who served with the British South Africa Police before joining the Royal Hongkong Police Force in 1961, was too upset to discuss his son's death yesterday. Families of the 20 dead are expected to formally identify their relatives today at Victoria Public Mortuary in Western. They were unable to do so yesterday because the public holiday meant no legal medical doctors were available to complete the procedure. One of the lucky survivors, Mr Anthony Cheung Wing-yiu, said his first visit to Lan Kwai Fong would be his last. Lying in bed at Tang Shiu Kin Hospital, the 22-year-old said: ''It was really upsetting to see people running for their lives. Everybody just worried about themselves . . . they didn't mind stepping on others if it meant they could survive.'' But Mr Cheung, who is in satisfactory condition with leg injuries, said it was understandable considering the circumstances. ''I think I would have done the same thing if only I was capable of running at that time. The fact is, I was injured and I could not move easily,'' he said. The nightmare began shortly before midnight when Mr Cheung, together with some friends, decided to join party-goers to welcome 1993. They found the streets so crowded that they decided to leave, but were then unable to do so. ''The crowd was moving very slowly and it was difficult for us to get out. Actually, some girls started to cry before the tragedy,'' Mr Cheung said. Just a few minutes later, the crush was over and boys and girls, all badly injured, were lying on the street. Mr Cheung and one of his friends, 26-year-old Ms Chan Man-yee, were taken into a bar to recover. He thought Ms Chan had died after losing consciousness during the crush. ''She would have died if it had not been for the help of a bartender who splashed her with water,'' he said. Mr Cheung's mother saw him on television and rushed to the hospital, where he was scolded for having been in Lan Kwai Fong in the first place. It was also the first time 17-year-old Chan Ho-yin and his 13-year-old brother Chan Ho-kin had been to Lan Kwai Fong. ''We had heard a lot about it and thought we would pass by to have a look,'' said Ho-yin at Queen Mary Hospital. ''At around 12.10, people suddenly poured out from everywhere. ''We were surrounded and I found myself pushing against my friends. ''My feet could not reach the ground and I lost my shoe in the chaos. I just didn't know what had hit me. ''The next thing I knew, two people had fainted next to me.'' He said there had been a steady police presence throughout the evening and the atmosphere had been jovial. ''But when the trouble began, I could not see police anywhere. When they re-appeared they asked us to move back and everyone obeyed, but those at the back refused to budge.'' When he was free of the human sandwich, Ho-yin went to search for his brother but could not find him anywhere. ''It was not until 3 or 4 am that we found out he had been taken to [Queen Mary] hospital,'' he said. Ho-kin was taken to hospital suffering from asphyxia. He is in the intensive care unit, where his condition was described as critical.