Wheel of misfortune: Hong Kong double-decker bus tyre blowout injures two passengers
Two passengers escaped serious injuries when a tyre on a Hong Kong double-decker bus blew out under their seats.
Two passengers escaped serious injuries when a tyre on a Hong Kong double-decker bus blew out under their seats.
The incident on Sunday evening has been widely discussed online since photographs showing a blown-open wheel arch on the Citybus vehicle and a fallen false ceiling went viral.
The injured passengers - a daughter and a mother aged 38 and 68 - were seated facing each other with the woman's five-year-old child beside her grandmother, as the 12-metre-long bus plied route E21A from Ho Man Tin to Tung Chung along the North Lantau Highway, when a rear left tyre exploded near the Caribbean Coast residential estate at about 7.30pm.
The bus driver, a 59-year-old man, immediately steered the vehicle to the side of the road before alerting the company and police.
The younger woman sustained multiple fractures to her leg.
Her mother also sustained cuts and wounds to her face.
The 38-year-old woman said in hospital today that she was thrown out of her seat after the tyre blew as did her daughter, who was thrown to the floor but not injured.
“I dare not to take buses now. My daughter was so scared that she caught a fever.”
They were taken to North Lantau Hospital. They were later transferred to Princess Margaret Hospital, where the older woman was said to be in a stable condition last night. No one else was reported injured.
An unknown number of passengers were transferred to another bus for the rest of their journey.
A photo said to be taken by another passenger showed a blown open wheel arch, exposing the tyre outside the 16-year-old Dennis Trident vehicle, while one of two adjacent seats was dislocated.
A fallen rectangular part of the false ceiling on the lower deck was seen in another photo, while bloodstains on the floor were seen in some others.
A spokeswoman for the bus company confirmed the authenticity of the photos last night but she could not comment on the tyre blowout and the degree of damage, saying an internal investigation was underway.
She also had no details about the flat tyre.
The bus was being repaired at the Citybus depot.
Veteran bus driver Albert Tang Sin-hing, chairman of Citybus’ employees union, said he had never seen such a “serious” blowout.
“The women were lucky that they did not sustain severe injuries,” he said, adding that tyre blowouts were rare. He said he had never seen a passenger cabin being damaged by an exploded tyre and refused to speculate on the cause.
