Doors fell off Hong Kong train because of poor employee oversight, lack of billboard maintenance, report finds
- Investigative body for city’s railway operator finds poor employee oversight, lack of billboard maintenance led to accident on December 2
- MTR Corporation apologises for incident, says it is sparing ‘no effort’ to prevent potential risks
A pair of carriage doors fell off a moving train last month because of a lack of employee oversight and no preventive billboard maintenance by Hong Kong’s railway operator, an investigation report found on Thursday.
The MTR Corporation’s investigative body said in the report that an outward leaning panel of a trackside billboard had hit and dislodged a pair of doors on a passing Kennedy Town-bound train as it approached a platform at Causeway Bay station.
“The investigation concluded that the access panel leaned out and hit the first pair of offside train doors due to the failure of the two locks and two stoppers in holding the panel in position,” it said.
The accident on December 2 at about 6pm delayed thousands of commuters on the Island line, shutting down the route for about three hours and causing a knock-on effect on roads as people scrambled for alternative transport.
No injuries related to the incident were reported.
The MTR Corp apologised to the public for the fiasco and pledged to improve measures to prevent any future incidents.