In an all-too-common scene in Hong Kong, passers-by rushed to lift a vehicle to free a crash victim at the top of Western Street yesterday morning, after a three-vehicle smash left a motorbike rider crushed under a taxi.

The crash was reported just before 10am yesterday morning, with media reports claiming two taxis were rushing for the light at the Bonham Road junction, causing a crash between one of the taxis, a minibus and a motorcycle. The second taxi driver reportedly fled the scene in his vehicle.

Rider Mr Fung, 53, was trapped under the taxi, which had slammed into the pedestrian refuge across Western Street.

More than a dozen good Samaritans raised the taxi, freeing the victim and the motorbike from under the vehicle while they waited for emergency services.

Fung was taken conscious to Queen Mary Hospital with head, chest and limb injuries.

Taxi driver, Mr Woo, 57, was also trapped in the taxi but freed by passers-by.

One female pedestrian in her 70s was also injured in the crash and sent to Queen Mary conscious. The minibus driver, Mr Cheung, 72, was unhurt and waited for police to arrive.

Police say they have no information regarding the second taxi which is said to have caused the crash. “There were only three vehicles involved,” said a spokesperson.

Nobody has been arrested.

Even as people rushed to the crash site to help the victim, another taxi driver can be seen almost hitting two women crossing Bonham Road on the pedestrian crossing, on the green man signal. That taxi then lurches forward as another man tries to cross, again slamming on brakes abruptly, before driving through the crossing on the green man signal.

The scenes of the passers-by frantically trying to lift the vehicle evokes memories of the Soho disaster last December when a runaway car killed 27-year-old Elodie Ma. The car rolled backwards into Ma, who was waiting for a restaurant table on Staunton Street.

And in August last year, in one of the worst traffic crashes in recent Hong Kong history, a taxi crashed through another pedestrian refuge in Tai Po, killing two and wounding seven – again, passers-by did the heavy lifting to try to save a 59-year-old man trapped under the taxi but he was declared dead at the scene.

A pregnant woman and her four-year-old son spent more than seven weeks in hospital after that crash.