The driver of the 59M was caught smoking and watching video while driving passengers along the Tuen Mun Highway

KMB says it has suspended a bus driver caught smoking and watching a video on his mobile phone while driving route 59M on the Tuen Mun Highway last night.

Several passing motorists had shared video of the incident, with one longer video showing the driver smoking and resting his cigarette hand on the open window.

The bus driver was also seen regularly looking down at what appears to be a video playing on a mobile phone.

KMB says it takes the incident seriously and will begin disciplinary procedures, with the driver suspended with immediate effect. “If the case is substantiated, serious disciplinary actions will be taken. Termination of employment will not be ruled out in that case,” a KMB spokesperson told Transit Jam.

Under Hong Kong law, smoking is forbidden in all franchised buses and public light buses, even when buses are not carrying passengers. Smoking is also forbidden in taxis when carrying passengers or plying for rides with the “for hire” light showing.

A bus driver at the Star Ferry bus station in Tsim Sha Tsui ignores the no-smoking laws passed to create a better environment for passengers

KMB drivers have a long record of scoffing at smoking laws: drivers and captains can regularly be seen smoking in non-smoking areas of bus stations, despite repeated complaints from the public and warnings from the government’s Tobacco and Alcohol Control Office (TACO).

Drivers are regularly seen smoking within no-smoking zones at the Star Ferry Public Transport Interchange and Shun Tak bus station, for example.

But at one bus station, Chuk Yuen Estate in Wong Tai Sin, the very first bus station to be designated “no smoking”, TACO claimed the bus drivers’ ashtray – a large tin behind the staff cabin – was technically outside the limits of the bus station and that no proof of smoking within the bus station could be found.

In 2023, a Transit Jam survey of six of the 42 outdoor no-smoking bus stations revealed 100% illegal smoking incidence by bus staff and captains, with KMB staff having set up permanent smoking areas within the no-smoking zone at several stations.

At the time, KMB said it would take “appropriate” disciplinary actions against staff found smoking.