Lorry driver tailgates bus: police
A lorry rammed into the back of a public bus, causing it to rear-end a tourist coach on the Macau-Taipa Friendship Bridge at around midday yesterday, slightly injuring 11 people – nine passengers on the Transmac bus, its driver and the lorry driver, the authorities said.
The police said that they have provisionally concluded that the crash was due to the lorry driver tailgating the bus.
According to statements by the Fire Services Bureau (CB) and the Public Security Police (PSP), the crash occurred shortly after 12 p.m. yesterday when the three vehicles were travelling from the peninsula to Taipa on the bridge.
According to the statements, the nine injured passengers comprised two males and seven females. The 11 injured are aged between 30 and 73, seven of whom were taken to the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre, while the remainder were taken to the private Kiang Hospital.
All 11 sustained slight injuries, the CB statement said.
Three of the injured bus passengers are visitors from the mainland.
None of those on the tourist coach were injured.
All three drivers passed a breathalyser test. They are local men, the police said.
According to the PSP statement, the preliminary findings of the ongoing investigation show that the accident was due to the 44-year-old’s lorry driver’s failure to “keep a safe distance” from the vehicle in front.
The police said that the lorry rear-ended the Transmac bus after its driver tailgated, which then caused the bus to crash into the back of the tourist coach.
Transmac’s statement
The accident occurred near the traffic lights where the bridge’s spur from Areia Preta district meets its spur from Avenida da Amizade. The three vehicles were travelling on the bridge from Areia Preta district.
A Transmac statement yesterday said that shortly after the No. 34 route bus stopped at the red traffic light, it was rear-ended by the lorry, causing the bus to hit the tourist coach in front.
The traffic lights there, which came into use in March 2017, regulate the traffic between vehicles coming from the one-lane spur from Avenida da Amizade and vehicles only on the outer and left lane of the spur from Areia Preta district. This means that vehicles from Areia Preta travelling on the inner and right lane are not subject to the traffic-light signals.
A police officer and firefighters work next to the lorry and public bus which collided on Friendship Bridge at around midday yesterday.
– Photo courtesy of TDM
