Man dies after Tai Po tree falls, crushes truck

The passenger of a truck was killed and its driver injured when a falling tree hit a passing truck in Tai Po on Thursday morning.

The left side of the driver’s cabin was crushed when the tree hit it shortly after 10.30am, a police spokesman said.

Firefighters took more than 1½ hours to free the male passenger, 53, who was trapped in the wreckage. The man, a delivery worker of South Asian origin, was taken to Alice Ho Miu Ling Nethersole Hospital and declared dead.

The driver, a 41-year-old Chinese man, was treated at the hospital for minor head injuries and dizziness, the spokesman said.

“The tree fell at a bad time, and hit the passing lorry,” said chief inspector Simon Pang Kwing-chuen. The accident happened in Lam Kam Road outside Lam Tsuen San Tsuen.

The tree was about 8 metres long and two metres in diameter, said police, who are investigating the cause of the accident.