Source: Ejinsight / Apple Daily HK

Police are investigating a fatal road accident that took place on Monday involving a school minibus, with officers trying to confirm if failure or improper application of the handbrake led to the crash.

In the serious incident that took place in North Point, an empty minibus careened down a street just after the driver had exited the vehicle, plowing into pedestrians and claiming the lives of four people and injuring nearly a dozen. According to Chief Inspector Sun Lun-yum from the police’s Hong Kong Island traffic unit, the driver may have forgotten to pull the handbrake or did not do so properly when he parked the vehicle on a downward slope. That may have caused the minibus to roll down a street, striking passersby before it crashed into a storefront. The investigation would focus on whether the driver properly applied the handbrake or whether there was mechanical error in the handbrake, the police officer said.

The deceased included an 80-year-old woman who died at the scene, a 70-year-old woman who died at Ruttonjee Hospital, and a 77-year-old man and an 83-year-old man, both of whom died at Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital. The tragic accident also injured 11 other people, aged 22 to 89. Four of them, including the 62-year-old minibus driver remained in critical condition at hospitals, the Hong Kong Economic Journal reports. The driver suffered injuries as he got hit by the moving vehicle after he stepped out.

Expressing her sadness at the news, Chief Executive Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor said the police will conduct a thorough investigation into the accident. Speaking from Zhuhai where she gone to attend an event, Lam offered condolences to the families of those who died and wished the injured a speedy recovery. She urged motorists to remain vigilant at all times about road safety, noting that unsafe behavior could affect many lives and families.

The accident took place at around 2 pm, when the school minibus driver was just about to get off work after having finished his second shift that day picking up kindergarteners. He parked the vehicle on Cheung Hong Street near Fort Street, in an area that bears an eight-degree slope downward. Footage of a dashboard camera from a passing vehicle showed that immediately after the driver got off the minibus and closed the door, it suddenly skidded forward and began moving down the slope. The shocked driver stood in front of it and tried to stop the minibus from sliding, only to be trapped underneath it and getting dragged for about 20 meters before he lay on the ground suffering serious injuries. Meanwhile, the minibus just kept rolling down the street and hit two taxis, before hitting some pedestrians. It did not stop until it crossed King’s Road and rammed into a shop on Hei Wo Street.

It took firemen about 20 minutes to pull out one woman and two men who were trapped underneath the vehicle. As the driver was fighting for life at the intensive care unit of Pamela Youde Nethersole Eastern Hospital, the person in charge of the company which owns the minibus said the driver involved in the accident started his job about a year ago. The person described the driver as being a good person who loves children very much and does not engage in rash driving. After watching the footage, Lo Kok-keung, a retired engineer from the mechanical engineering department of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, noted that the minibus did not skid downward immediately after the driver got off the vehicle, but moved slowly down after he closed the door. That suggests that the driver did not apply the handbrake in a secure fashion, Lo said. Based on the inclination of the slope and the minibus’s speed of about 30 km/h when it was skidding, Lo calculated that the impact could be as strong as eight metric tons.

Data from the government show there were three accidents involving failure or improper application of handbrakes last year, causing three deaths. This year, there have been two such incidents as of date, including the one that happened in North Point on Monday.

Source: OnCC/Coconuts HK

Police have arrested 15 men, some with triad backgrounds over a gang attack on food hawkers in Tsueng Kwan O which saw one female vendor’s food cart toppled and her face scalded with her own soup. The attack took place on Monday night inside Sheung Tak Plaza where about 10 food carts had assembled to serve customers after 9pm according to on.cc. Appearing suddenly, a large group of men clad in dark clothing and surgical masks set upon the hawkers flipping multiple food carts during the brazen 30-second raid. Among those targeted was a female vendor surnamed Cheung who was manning her spicy noodle soup broth cart with her husband and son. During the fracas Cheung was scalded in the face and hands with the hot and spicy noodle soup broth she was serving. The 42-year-old’s pain and shock can be heard in a video published by on.cc showing a group of men walk away from the scene. Cheung’s sobs are audible in the background.

Police arrived at the scene shortly after the attack and Cheung was taken to hospital. According to Sing Tao Daily, police arrested nine men on Monday night after the Sheung Tak Plaza incident was reported, and another six men last night. The first group of men — aged 17 to 35 — were detained after police received a tip off at 10pm on Monday night that nine men were spotted acting suspiciously at Po Lam. Police then intercepted the group and arrested them on suspicion of possessing offensive weapons and using false instruments after they found two pairs of gloves, two knives, 2 wooden sticks, a box of face masks, and two sets of car license plates inside a private car connected to the group.

The remaining six men — aged 21 to 40 — were arrested at noon yesterday on suspicion of criminal damage. Anti-triad officers are investigating the case, with reports suggesting at least some of the men had triad links.

Edited: johnwai82

Source: Ejinsight / Apple Daily HK

A 57-year-old man was arrested by police on Wednesday on suspicion of killing his wife and trying to pass off her death as a suicide case. According to Apple Daily the husband who is believed to be unemployed called the police at around 2:55 pm and informed them that his wife, 40, attempted to commit suicide at home. After arriving at their flat in Nam Lok House building in Nam Shan Estate a public housing estate in Shek Kip Mei, police and paramedics saw a woman lying unconscious on the floor. Paramedics rushed her to Caritas Medical Centre where she was pronounced dead. While the husband claimed that his wife killed herself the police were skeptical of his claims as they noticed injuries on the woman’s back and also didn’t find a knife at the scene. A search in the building led the officers to uncover a fruit knife in a rubbish bin near a staircase on the same floor where the couple’s flat was located. An examination led to the conclusion that it may have been the weapon that was used to inflict grievous injuries to the woman. The husband was arrested on suspicion of killing his wife. Man Chi-yeung, chief inspector (crime) of the police’s Sham Shui Po district unit said initial investigation suggested that a relationship dispute was likely to be what led to the crime.

The case has been listed as murder and the was husband placed under custody. Post-mortem examinations will be conducted on the victim to ascertain the cause of her death. A source told Apple Daily that the husband had suspected his wife, who was from Huizhou in Guangdong province, had an extra-marital affair. The pair was heard quarrelling multiple times in the recent past, according to the source.

Following Wednesday’s death and the arrest, the couple’s two sons, 16, and 10, will, for the time being, be put under the care of the Social Welfare Department. The department will provide the family with appropriate support and assistance with respect to their welfare needs. The case is being followed up by the crime squad of Sham Shui Po district.

Source: SCMP/Ming Pao/Youtube

Jackie Chan’s 19-year-old daughter Etta Ng Chok Lam confirmed on Monday morning that she had married her 31-year-old Canadian internet celebrity girlfriend Andi Autumn.

Ng posted a photo on her Instagram account of the happy couple, both wearing white dresses and holding a marriage certificate dated November 8, 2018. Under the photo, Ng wrote, “united by love and law, on our wedding day”. “We have all been hurt but if you can dream of love, you can find it. Love is kind, it does not judge. Love is both strength and weakness. Love can make [a] change. Love wins!” she wrote.

Many internet users expressed their blessings on Instagram as well as Weibo, China’s Twitter-like service. Ng is Jackie Chan’s daughter with actress and former beauty queen Elaine Ng Yi Lei, who announced her pregnancy and disclosed her affair with Chan in 1999, although the pair did not marry. Ng and Autumn started dating in 2017 and moved to Canada in October that year, but their relationship failed to win support from her parents.

In April, Ng asked for help from the public in a YouTube video that went viral. In the video Ng said she and Autumn were on the verge of homelessness, and blamed her “homophobic” parents. At that time, Ng’s claims were denounced by her mother Elaine Ng. “I feel that if they have no money, they should go find work. They shouldn’t film a clip telling others they are broke and who Etta’s father is. People all over the world work hard and don’t rely on someone else’s fame to get money,” Elaine Ng was quoted as saying by website Coconuts. 

Source: SCMP/On.cc

An elderly couple were found dead in a Hong Kong public housing flat on Monday, sparking a police investigation into whether a suicide pact was involved.

“Firefighters broke into the flat and found the bodies of a man and a woman inside,” a police spokeswoman said. The man was 75 and his wife was 87. They had five grown children who had moved out of the flat, according to a police source.

The man had difficulty walking and was wheelchair-bound, while his wife had suffered from depression for about a decade. “The man was found unconscious in a wheelchair in the kitchen and his wife was found in the bedroom. They were certified dead at the scene,” the source said. He said officers found a tray of burnt charcoal in the living room but no suicide note. The flat was locked from the inside and police were investigating if it was a suicide pact. The pair were last seen at home when their son visited them around midday on Sunday.