Hong Kong mechanic dies after being crushed under bus

Police say 52-year-old man surnamed Leung managed to climb out from underneath vehicle, but was found unconscious with multiple injuries The victim was taken to Tuen Mun Hospital for treatment, but was later declared dead. Photo: Jelly Tse A Hong Kong mechanic died earlier this week after being crushed by a 28-seater bus while he was inspecting its undercarriage, police revealed on Thursday. The force said a colleague of the victim had contacted police at 3.45pm on Tuesday about the incident, which took place in a garage on Tin Ha Road in Tin Shui Wai. Police said the deceased, a 52-year-old man surnamed Leung, managed to climb out from underneath the vehicle but was found in an unconscious state with multiple injuries when officers arrived at the scene. He was taken to Tuen Mun Hospital for treatment, but was later pronounced dead. The cause of death is set to be confirmed after an autopsy. Fay Siu Sin-man, chief executive of the Association for the Rights of Industrial Accident Victims, said similar accidents had happened before, citing a case in Tai Wai nine years ago. “A lot of the time it could be due to the failure of the car jack. Currently, there is no requirement for regular checks of equipment used,” she said, stressing that the reason for the recent death was not yet known. She suggested that a safer practice would be to secure the vehicle with a hanging device while also elevating it with a car jack so there was “double the protection”, but added that it would depend on whether that was practical in the settings of each garage. Siu said the garage or the employer would have to be responsible for the safety of staff members, including assessing whether car jacks were working properly or were damaged. Siu said another way to prevent a similar accident was to have the mechanic work in a service pit so he or she would not be crushed even if the vehicle dropped, noting that the tram depot used a similar system. The mechanic’s family should be able to make claims for compensation if he was not the business owner, she noted, as the accident took place during work hours at his workplace and should be covered under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance. Unhandled type: inline-plus-widget {"type":"inline-plus-widget"}