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A double-decker bus crash happening Saturday in the Tai Po area of Hong Kong has claimed the lives of 17 men and 2 women, with dozens of injured survivors.
Many early reports of the incident claimed only 18 people were killed in the crash; later accounts increased the number to 19. According to The New York Times, the crash is believed to be one of the deadliest Hong Kong has even seen since 2003, in which 21 people were killed after another double-decker bus broke through a guardrail, knocking it off the road. A sum payment of HK$80,000 ($10,230) will be given to the families of victims.
Images of the scene showed the passenger bus lying on its side, with the top of the bus appearing to have been ripped off.
The bus crashed near the site of a large horse racecourse; special arrangements have been made in order to accommodate heavy traffic.
UPDATE: The number of those injured in the crash was later given as being more than 60, according to Channel News Asia. Of the inured, ten were said to be in critical condition and another 20 were seriously wounded. Most of the dead and injured had been on the upper deck of the bus.
The driver was suspected to be over the speed limit as we went down a slope, which could have caused him to lose control of the vehicle. After the crash, he was not in need of medical treatment and was found to be sober.
Reportedly, passengers on the bus have said that it was going too fast before the fatal crash. According to Sky News, one injured passenger later gave the following account:
“It was much faster than I normally felt in a bus and then it was like the tyre slipped, and the bus turned. It was really chaotic in the bus. People fell on one another and got tossed from side to side.”
