An MTR technician died in the early hours of Tuesday in an accident while carrying out maintenance work.
The 59-year-old man was found lying on the tracks at around 2am near the Tai Wai Depot. He was pronounced dead at the scene. He was suspected to have been hit by a maintenance train, local media cited police as saying.
According to the Operations Director of the MTR Corporation Adi Lau, a team of four workers – two drivers, a signal officer, and the technician – were on a maintenance train from the Tai Wai Depot to Che Kung Temple station.
The team discovered that one of their colleagues was missing after making preparations to carry out track repairs at the Che Kung Temple station. The team contacted the control centre right away, Lau said.
At around 2am, another team was leaving the Tai Wai Depot when they saw the 59-year-old, who was wearing high visibility clothing, lying on the track from a distance.
“The staff stopped the train, then walked towards the colleague lying on the ground, and discovered that he was unresponsive,” Lau said.
He was a technician who had been working for the company since 1989, Lau said. He said the MTR would cooperate with the police and government departments to investigate the accident.
Lau said that, according to procedures, staff are supposed to stay in the maintenance train, and wait until passenger trains have entered the depot to drive to the work location on the main tracks. The body was found on the tracks connecting the depot and the main tracks, he said.
He added that the authorities will investigate why the technician was on the tracks, and whether he was run over by the train.
The Labour Department said that it is investigating the incident as an industrial accident.
