Investigators probing yesterday's bus disaster suspect passenger panic could have toppled the vehicle off the edge of Tuen Mun Road as it hovered momentarily on safety rails after being hit by a truck.
Twenty-one people were killed and 20 others were injured after the double-decker bus, carrying schoolchildren and early morning commuters, plunged 50 metres off the busy elevated road at 6.30am yesterday. The Kowloon Motor Bus service on route 265M came to rest on the edge of Ting Kau village, surrounded by debris and bodies.
Government sources yesterday said that the bus, which was travelling in the slow lane, rolled on to the barrier on impact.
'The bus see-sawed for a second. Passengers might have panicked and moved to the front so they could get out. It might be that that was why it plunged,' one said.
Police were last night deliberating whether the traffic investigation would be turned over into a criminal inquiry following the arrest of Lee Chau-wing, the 53-year-old truck driver. Mr Lee was released on $5,000 bail and asked to report back to police tomorrow.
This came amid tales of survival including a nine-year-old girl who walked away almost unscathed and a taxi driver who claimed he survived after his fall was softened by other passengers' bodies.
