Two schoolboys were rescued by pedestrians after they had been hit by a TCM bus when it was driving across a zebra crossing in Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon yesterday afternoon, Public Security Police (PSP) spokesman Cheuk Kou Chi told The Macau Post Daily on the phone last night.
In a highly dramatic scene that went viral on social media platforms, one of the pedestrians managed to pull one of the boys from under the bus.
Cheuk said the incident occurred at about 5 p.m. The two boys were rushed to the private Kiang Wu Hospital for treatment. The two boys are brothers aged eight and six. The eight-year-old boy sustained injuries to his waist and cervical spine as well as a contusion on his left elbow. His six-year-old brother suffered injuries to his right foot and contusions on both knees. Both have to stay in hospital for two days for observation, Cheuk said.
According to a statement from public bus operator Sociedade de Transportes Colectivos de Macau, S.A. (TCM) last night, the company attaches great importance to the traffic accident and immediately arranged for an emergency team to follow up on the matter with the two children and their family. At the same time, staff members scrutinised CCTV footage from the bus and nearby areas. The company conveyed its apologies to the two boys and their family as well as the general public for the apprehension caused by the incident.
According to the statement, the 59-year-old driver joined TCM in July 2018. His last rest day was on Friday.
The driver’s staff record shows that he had had one minor incident this year, but there were no complaints about him. The company said that it has ordered the driver to stop working temporarily “for safety reasons.”
The TCM statement pointed out that the incident occurred at 5:02 p.m. when the driver was driving bus no. 18B to Rua da Serenidade and turned into Rua Oito do Bairro Iao Hon. The driver stopped at the zebra crossing to allow pedestrians cross. He then started to drive across it at a speed of eight kilometres per hour. When the bus was going across the zebra crossing, two schoolchildren walking on the left side of the zebra crossing were hit by the bus.
According to the PSP spokesman, the driver’s alcohol breath test was “zero”. He told the police that he did not see the two children when he drove across the zebra crossing. Cheuk said that the eight-year-old boy was the one who ended up under the bus after he had been hit. He managed to crawl out from under the bus with the help of a pedestrian who had rushed over to help him.
Video footage from social media showed pedestrians urging the driver to stop, which he did. One of the pedestrians even rushed to the bus to knock on its window in order to alert the driver about the potential disaster.
The TCM statement underlined that the company will fully cooperate with the police in investigating the accident.
The exact circumstances of the accident were still unclear late last night.
These two screenshots downloaded from social media show pedestrians helping the 8-year-old schoolboy crawl out from under the bus in the Iao Hon neighbourhood yesterday afternoon.
