Serious bus accident in Hong Kong

[planesandtrains]

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/19-killed-and-dozens-injured-as-bus-topples-over-in-hong-kong-11243863

[snoggle]

Feb 10, 2018 14:50:30 GMT planesandtrains said:

www.google.co.uk/amp/s/news.sky.com/story/amp/19-killed-and-dozens-injured-as-bus-topples-over-in-hong-kong-11243863

Oh heck - not another one. HK has spates of these accidents. I do wonder if the fact it was on a racecourse special service meant it was very heavily loaded - such routes often are.

www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/at-least-18-killed-as-bus-topples-over-in-hong-kong-9948060

Looks like it was a Volvo B9TL / Wright Gemini tri-axle (not important I know but I'll say it before someone else does).

EDIT

Trade union official blames government for the crash. Issues include excessive hours, excessive overtime, poor pay.

www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2132876/hong-kong-bus-union-blames-officials-fatal-crash

[tony4387]

Sounds like the company are,admitting liability all ready wen they don't know for sure what caused the accident

[snoggle]

Feb 11, 2018 20:00:53 GMT tony4387 said:

Sounds like the company are,admitting liability all ready wen they don't know for sure what caused the accident

Pretty standard practice over there IME. To be honest there doesn't appear to be any other vehicle involved in this incident and the witness reports (as put in the media) point towards driver error. Not arguing about the provision of "compensation payments" is also a way of taking some of the heat out of the inevitable public and political reaction [1]. It also instantly eases immediate worries for some people over funeral costs etc. TfL did pretty much the same with the Croydon tram crash. There will almost certainly be insurance related arguments in the background (given how insurance companies behave) but no one wants to be talking about that in such a high profile accident.

[1] there may also be some element here of how the Chinese culture works but I don't know enough about it to be sure.

[snoggle]

Seems there has been some industrial relations "fall out" from the recent bus crash. Firstly an impromptu strike by some drivers then threatend dismissals by KMB and then some frantic backpeddling and an appeal process followed by criticism from the HK Chief Executive. Looks all a bit messy but clearly the workforce is not happy.

www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/community/article/2134576/kmb-bus-driver-union-plans-8pm-strike-stopping-buses-hong

www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/economy/article/2136093/carrie-lam-sees-room-improvement-how-hong-bus-company-handles