KMB depot driver gets 200-hour service order
On.cc · 3 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A District Court judge sentenced KMB employee Sun Wai-leung to 200 hours of community service after convicting him of careless driving in a fatal incident at KMB’s Kowloon Bay depot. Sun had originally faced a charge of dangerous driving causing death over the September 7, 2023 collision, but was acquitted of that offence after trial and instead convicted of the lesser careless driving charge. The victim, Lo Yuk-kuen, a fellow bus captain on an early shift, was struck while Sun was reversing a bus on the fifth floor rooftop area of the depot and was found more than two hours later with no pulse or breathing. Judge Alex Leung Kam-hung described the case as a tragedy and treated it as an exceptional case in imposing a non-custodial sentence.
Key Points
- The case arose from a pre-dawn incident at about 4am on September 7, 2023, at KMB’s Kowloon Bay depot on Lam Wah Street.
- CCTV showed Lo Yuk-kuen passing the front of the bus at 4:47am and moving behind it before Sun boarded and reversed into him.
- Lo was discovered around 7am on the rooftop, unconscious and without pulse, and was later certified dead from multiple injuries.
- KMB guidelines required drivers reversing buses to open the side window, sound the horn when necessary, and move at a very slow speed.
- The judge said Sun had more than 20 years of driving experience and no prior driving offences, suggesting this was likely a one-off error.
Why It Matters
The ruling draws attention to how serious safety failures can occur inside bus depots, not only on public roads, and to the importance of reversing procedures for large vehicles used in Hong Kong’s transport system. It also shows the court balancing the loss of life against a defendant’s record, mental health impact and family circumstances when deciding whether a custodial sentence serves any practical purpose.