A Hong Kong taxi driver has been arrested after his vehicle collided with another car in the early hours of New Year’s Day, leaving three dead and four others injured.
Police said on Wednesday that the accident occurred on the West Kowloon Highway near the Olympic MTR station at 1.44 am on Wednesday after the taxi hit a private vehicle, causing it to lose control.
The private car then “rammed into a kerb, and crashed into [another] moving taxi and three stationary private cars,” police said.
The 30-year-old driver of the private vehicle was pronounced dead at scene, while two passengers, aged 33 and 34, were certified dead at Princess Margaret Hospital about an hour after the accident.
The taxi driver, 65, was arrested on suspicion of dangerous driving causing death and had been detained for enquiries, the force added.
Two other passengers who were in the private vehicles, aged 19 and 23, sustained back injuries while the taxi’s two passengers sustained limb injuries, according to the police. All four were hospitalised.
According to videos circulating online, the collision caused the private car to flip over and hit the road divider.
Police said the Kowloon West special traffic investigation team had begun investigating and urged any witnesses of the accident to contact them.
