Chow Tsz-lok’s death most likely caused by an accidental fall, says expert

An orthopaedist told an inquest into the death of university student Chow Tsz-lok today suggesting that Chow most probably fell from height by accident last year, rather than being attacked and thrown off the wall by someone.

Chow, 22, died from brain injuries four days after he fell from the third to the second floor at Sheung Tak Estate car park in Tseung Kwan O in the early hours of November 4 last year, while police clashed with anti-government protesters nearby.

On the 24th day of the inquest, expert witness James Kong Kam-fu gave his assessment of what happened the night Chow died after examining Chow’s medical and post-mortem reports.

He said judging from the horizontal distance where Chow was found to the wall, where Chow was laying 1.3 meters away from the wall with a vertical distance of 4.3 meters, Chow was unlikely to be thrown to the ground by someone.

Kong also suggested that Chow’s head injuries were more likely the result of a fall instead of a jump, as injuries sustained from a jump is more likely to occur on the person’s back.

The doctor also pointed out that Chow may not have sufficient time to react to his fall, causing severe injuries to his head.

He said from his calculation, Chow falling from a height of 4.3 meters takes around 0.93 seconds. Normally, people’s perception reaction time will be around 0.5 to 0.7 seconds, leaving Chow with only 0.45 seconds to react and protect himself from the fall.

The expert later concluded that there was a high chance that Chow had fallen from height accidentally after losing his balance, and landed on the right side of his head.