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SCMP Reporter

A MARRIED couple who slipped and plunged 50 metres to their deaths on a family hiking trip had walked past danger signs, a coroner's jury heard yesterday.

   Wendy Ng Hau-kuen, 30, lost her footing on a path to Tai Mo Shan, Hong Kong's highest peak, made dangerous by a landslide.

   Her husband Leung Ka-lok, 33, fell almost immediately afterwards, apparently trying to save his wife, the inquest was told.

   Six of the dead couple's family, including their orphaned seven-year-old daughter Leung Ho-kay, were stranded at the peak overnight before being rescued.

    Two students who saw the tragedy and tried to get down the dangerous cliff face to reach the couple were also hurt.

    The inquest was told warning signs about a landslide which made the path dangerous had been erected along the route.

    Lun Chi-king, of the Agriculture and Fisheries Department, said two signs had been put up the week before warning about the landslide.

    Leung's sister Leung Fung-ming said she had seen a sign but the family had walked on.

    The jury returned a verdict of accidental death on Ng, a civil servant, and Leung, a clerk, both from Sha Tin.

    Miss Leung said they had set off at 11 am on October 23 last year to walk from Ng Tung Chai to Tsuen Wan via Tai Mo Shan.

    After walking past the part where the landslide was, they walked up a hill but decided it was not possible to reach Tsuen Wan.

    She said the group, with no maps or special equipment, was lost and could not go up or down safely.

    After meeting the two students they all began to walk down in single file because the path was so narrow.

    ''My sister-in-law [Ng] turned around and said to us, 'Better hurry - it's getting dark'.

     ''I saw her walking down the hill, then I heard her cry out when she fell.

     ''My elder brother [Leung] came down and I told him that my sister-in-law had fallen and there was no response from her.

     ''My brother walked out from where we stood. Then he disappeared,'' Miss Leung said.

       Chong Kan-chau, 20, then a student, described how he and Kwok Chun-chiu, 17, tried to reach the couple.

     Mr Chong was helping their daughter walk down when he heard the girl cry ''Mummy'' as Ng fell.

     When Leung fell, the students began moving down the sharp cliff face.

    Part-way down, Chun-chiu fell and grabbed on to a branch which left him dangling above the precipice.

    Mr Chong tried to help him but Chun-chiu refused, saying he did not want to drag him down too.

    Chun-chiu then lost his grip on the flimsy branch and fell. He was knocked unconscious and hurt his back.

    Mr Chong was also hurt, but managed to make his way through the gathering gloom to raise the alarm.

    The inquest, before Coroner Warner Banks, was told rescue teams rushed to the scene. They took the couple to the Jockey Club Clinic in Tai Po where they were pronounced dead.

     The rest of the party on the top of the peak was eventually brought to safety at 6 am the next day.



Death fall pair ignored signs