Engineer killed in crash while driving taxi part time

A 30-year-old engineer, who works as a parttime taxi driver during weekends, was killed in a crash yesterday after losing control of his vehicle on Penny’s Bay Highway, ramming into a road sign and a concrete wall of a flower bed.

He was heading to Kowloon when the fatal accident happened around 3am near the entrance of Magic Road roundabout.

“[The taxi] reportedly lost control, crashed into a traffic sign, then rammed into a flower bed and overturned,” police said.

It was raining and no passenger was in the taxi when the accident happened.

The vehicle was severely damaged with wheels knocked sideways and doors flying away from the body of the car.

The driver was trapped in his seat with injuries to his head, nose and mouth, and was unconscious when ambulancemen arrived.

He was taken to North Lantau Hospital where he was certified dead at 4.19am.

The engineer, Chow, started driving at 9 am on Sunday and had worked for nearly 18 hours before the accident.

The police are appealing for eyewitnesses to contact them on 3661-1346.

This is the second fatal accident involving a taxi on the highway within a space of two months, with a 71-year-old taxi driver dying after colliding with another taxi.

The accident happened around 11 am on October 26 when he lost control and rammed a hybrid taxi, pushing it and mounting the grass at the Magic Road roundabout.

The driver was unconscious when he was sent to North Lantau Hospital and died an hour later.

Injured were a 49-year-old driver and three passengers, a 35-year-old woman, her eight-year-old boy and three-year-old girl.

Yesterday also saw a baby injured in an accident involving six vehicles on Tsuen Wan Road around 8.30 am, involving a Tesla, two other vehicles, two trucks and a taxi.

Reports at the scene said all six vehicles were on the right lane of the road heading to Kowloon, when a truck caused the accident while trying to cut into another lane.

The two trucks were badly damaged, one with a broken windshield and the other with a dented rear.

Six people were slightly injured – three men, two women and a 1½-year-old boy.

They were all sent to Yan Chai Hospital.