The bus being righted, after it hit a concrete divider and flipped over, killing one passenger. Inset: Rachel Kwan Chui-lan was Assistant Commissioner with Transport Department investigating KMB’s role in the deadly 2018 bus crash. She was hired by KMB this year.

Police have arrested a 58-year-old bus driver for dangerous driving causing death and dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm after a highway smash last night which killed one passenger and injured 11.

Bus driver Mr Wong was driving along Tai Po Road – Tai Wai when he apparently hit a concrete lane divider at the on-ramp to Tsing Sha Highway. The crash caused the bus to flip over, killing 37-year-old passenger Mr Ng almost instantly – Ng was found dead at the scene with serious head wounds.

Another 10 passengers, aged between 19 and 70, and the driver himself were injured slightly and sent to Queen Elizabeth Hospital and Prince of Wales Hospital for treatment.

Scenes from the crash reignited the horror of the 2018 KMB Tai Po bus crash which killed 19 people.

In fact, the top transport official responsible for investigating KMB’s role in that deadly crash was employed by KMB earlier this year.

Rachel Kwan Chui-lan – the former transport official investigated KMB for the Tai Po bus crash and was hired by the firm as a senior executive earlier this year

Rachel Kwan Chui-lan was Assistant Commissioner, Bus & Railway, Transport Department (TD), reporting to the Deputy Commissioner for Transport Services and Management, and regularly appeared in LegCo and other panels as the government’s point person on bus franchise renegotiations.

As well as working on KMB’s 10-year franchise renewal in 2017, Kwan had been a point person on union relationships during the Independent Review Committee (IRC) investigations begun following the Tai Po disaster.

Kwan left government in 2018 and joined KMB in January 2021, as its new Deputy Director of Traffic Services (Bus Services).

At the time, lawmaker Chan Han-pan slammed the move from KMB, claiming the public would have the impression of wrongdoing even if the civil servant had completed the 18-month cooling-off period. Chan urged the government to review and tighten regulations governing the roles that civil servants take up after they leave office.