Another traffic accident occurred in Yuen Long Highway on January 13 in which a van driver was knocked out by a 'flying' wooden plank which smashed through his windscreen. It was fortunate that the driver managed to stop his vehicle before losing consciousness.
The wooden plank, according to the van driver, flew off a lorry which was travelling in the opposite direction.
Accidents like this are not uncommon.
The road villains care only for speed and convenience and ignore the lives of other motorists. They do not care about properly tying or covering objects that may fly off when their vehicles pick up speed on highways. Even dangerous goods like cyanide receive inadequate attention - to the extent that most of one lorry's cargo had rolled off before the driver noticed.
In another incident some weeks ago, wet concrete slipped out of a moving truck and splashed on to the Island East Corridor. It delayed traffic but no one was injured. Some are not so lucky. Last year a van driver, travelling on the approach road to Shing Mun Tunnel, was killed when he was hit by an airborne metal object.
It is common to see objects ranging from rocks the size of the human skull to wholesale vegetable containers lying on roads. Look at the sides of trunks and you will see how cleverly they hang things such as trolleys, water buckets and canvas sheets from the chassis. Though driving demands attention, sometimes such 'landmines' are difficult to see and avoid.
