Horror bus crash still haunting elderly Hong Kong survivor
Three days after double-decker crash that left 19 dead, injured passenger Tsui says he can’t get the tragedy out of his mind day or night
Hong Kong bus crash survivor Tsui has managed just five hours of sleep since Saturday.
Sixty hours on, vivid images of the tragedy kept playing on his mind as he lay in his hospital bed.
“It seems like I have been reliving the moment ever since it happened. Everywhere I look – if I turn left, right or lift my head – flashbacks of the crash continue to fly through my mind,” said Tsui, who is in his 70s and injured the upper side of his body in the weekend accident near Tai Po Tsuen that left 19 of his fellow passengers dead.
But the physical pain told only half the story. The traumatic experience was taking a psychological toll as well, he said. He had already spoken with a psychologist from the Social Welfare Department.
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“My heart has been heavy and pumping hard. I am still in shock. I was fine on Saturday when I thought I was too lightly injured to be hospitalised but here I am,” he said on Tuesday.
“More symptoms are surfacing physically and psychologically. I even developed a cough and I don’t know where that has come from.”
Tsui, who hoped to get more rest in Tai Po’s Nethersole Hospital with the help of sleeping pills, said: “I made some improvement on [Monday] night, with two hours of rest altogether.”
The situation was also affecting his family. The incident so bothered his wife she developed a fever – but she was still at his bedside, along with two of their children.
Tsui’s son said: “We are just so lucky that we still have our father. My son, his grandson actually, said after the accident that he almost couldn’t see his grandpa ever again.”
His daughter described it as Tsui escaping from the “devil’s arms”.
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“We had plans to visit Tsui’s sister for dinner on the second day of the new year but at the moment, all we are hoping for is for Tsui to start off the new year at home,” his wife said.
According to the Social Welfare Department, there were 84 cases who needed psychological counselling, including family members of the 19 who died as well as 65 injured passengers.
The government also announced that as of Tuesday afternoon, five passengers remained in critical condition while another five were in serious condition at various local hospitals. Twenty-two others were in stable condition.
