A double-decker driven by a 28-year-old man ploughed into an unprotected cleaning truck parked on the highway exit

Two workers were killed yesterday as a double-decker bus driven by a 28-year-old man ploughed into their work truck parked in the left lane of a highway exit they were cleaning.

The Longwin bus, driven by Mr Ng, was driving around the Tung Chung Eastern Interchange towards Tung Chung when it struck the Sparkle Environmental Services cleaning truck. That truck then shunted forward and rammed a Sparkle van which shunted into four cleaning workers, two of whom died.

64-year-old Mr Lam was killed instantly while 52-year old Mr Lai was trapped under the truck and rescued by fire crews. He died in Princess Margaret Hospital at 1.22pm.

Two female workers, aged 58 and 51, were badly injured and sent to Princess Margaret Hospital conscious.

Two other Sparkle workers, a 54 year old woman and a 73 year old man, were slightly injured, as were four female bus passengers, aged between 28 and 94. They were all also sent to Princess Margaret Hospital.

Police arrested the bus driver for dangerous driving causing death.

According to reports from the scene, the workers had no signs, cones or lights protecting them or their stationary vehicles.

Observers have long noted the dangers of maintenance and cleaning vehicles not displaying lights or any kind of protective signs or cones. There were at least three deaths involving illegally-parked or broken-down vehicles in the last year, including a truck driver who died slamming into a stopped bus, and a bus driver killed driving into an illegally parked coach near the KMB depot.

Highways Department workers use the highway for convenient parking while they go for lunch at Cafe de Coral in Fu Tung Plaza, according to a local worker

And a Transit Jam reader has regularly sent pictures of Highways Department trucks parking on the highway just a few hundred metres away from yesterday’s deadly crash. Workers use the highway as a handy parking spot for lunch in Fu Tung Plaza.

Government-contracted cleaning firm Sparkle Environmental Services has not commented on the corporate homicide or why its workers were not protected as they worked on the highway.

But Facebook users have complained about the road safety of Sparkle trucks: one said of a truck blocking a pedestrian crossing: “The driver doesn’t obey the traffic rules, and parks around just for his own convenience. When talking to him […] he chase me all over the street to shadow me. How dare your company do this? Training staff?

Government-contractor Sparkle is a relatively new firm, but Facebook users have already complained about the company’s poor safety culture