Three injured after landslide pushes excavator off slope in Lam Tin

Three workers were injured on Tuesday after a landslide pushed an excavator off a slope on Lin Tak Road in Lam Tin. The excavator was said to have tumbled down the slope and knocked down a noise barrier, hitting a garbage truck parked next to it.

The incident was reported to authorities at around 9 am at a construction site near Hong Wah Court.

Sources said that following the accident, a passenger in the garbage truck was trapped, while both the excavator and garbage truck drivers managed to free themselves before rescuers arrived.

The Fire Services Department’s Disaster Response and Rescue Team was called in to rescue the trapped passenger.

The trio — one in serious condition and two slightly injured — were sent to United Christian Hospital in Kwun Tong in conscious states.

Fire Services Department assistant divisional officer Edmund Kao Chung-lei said during a media briefing that the excavator, rocks, and a 10-meter by five-meter barrier, had fell off the slope together and tumbled the garbage truck which was driving on the road at that time.

The garbage truck passenger had once been trapped inside the car for about two hours, which Kao explained the firefighters had to deploy a mobile crane to lift the excavator and rocks.

Thirteen fire trucks, seven ambulance vehicles, and 75 firefighters and ambulance crews were deployed, Kao added.

An investigation into the cause of the incident is ongoing.

(Marco Lam and Eunice Lam)
(Updated at 2.52 pm)