Massive tree falls on Hong Kong taxi, leaving elderly passenger in hospital
Driver and two other passengers unhurt by 15-metre tree
A 96-year-old man was knocked unconscious while in a taxi driven by his son when the vehicle was hit by a massive falling tree in Kowloon on Tuesday.
He regained consciousness and was in stable condition.
The man was being driven by his son, Tang Wai-man, 64, to the same hospital for a medical appointment when a 15-metre tree collapsed on Wylie Road and hit the taxi at about 2.30pm Tuesday.
The man and his foreign domestic helper were in the rear passenger seats and his daughter was in the front passenger seat at the time.
The driver said the tree “suddenly collapsed” as he arrived at Parc Palais, a residential development, on Wylie Road.
“I immediately braked, but the car still rolled forward and hit the tree,” he said. “It’s possible my father was in shock and passed out while in the vehicle.”
The driver and the other two passengers were unhurt in the incident. The front windscreen and roof of his taxi were damaged.
The tree’s branches hit another taxi in the opposite lane, but its 68-year-old driver and his passenger were unhurt.
Tang said his father earlier sustained a head injury after he slipped and fell in a separate incident and that he was driving him to the hospital for a consultation on Tuesday.
The road was closed for more than 45 minutes until firefighters cut and removed the debris.
