Airport worker dies after container accident

A 53-year-old worker died last night after being crushed by a cargo container at Chek Lap Kok Airport last night.

The man, surnamed Cheung, was rushed to North Lantau Hospital after being caught between an air cargo container and a steel door while working at the HACTL SuperTerminal 1 air freight centre.

Medical staff certified him dead just before 1am, HK01 reported. Police classified the incident as industrial accident.

Separately, a security guard found a man passed out in a toilet, also at Super Terminal 1, at 3am. Paramedics called to the scene confirmed he was deceased.

The man, about 50 years old, the owner of a logistics company, had earlier complained to colleagues of chest pain. There were no suspicious circumstances.

The 10th Lantau Beer Dash is the end of an era

Next week’s beer dash, a highlight in the Lantau calendar, marks two milestones.

Officially known as the Lantau International Beer Dash, it will be the tenth time the charity fundraiser has been held.

It will also be the last time that founder Melanie Potgieter will organise the event.

Mel (as everyone calls her) and her family are moving to Hong Kong Island for her daughters’ schooling.

They will be back in Lantau, but Mel has decided it is time to hand over the reins to someone else. Lantau News spoke to her this week.

Q: What gave you the idea with the idea for the beer dash?

In 2009 we had Typhoon Hagupit, which was quite devastating. We were then living at Upper Cheung Sha, and we were friendly with locals down on the beach.

Their whole house was flooded, so we sent out emails to the community to come help and they did. Everybody made donations and we were able to buy them a fridge and TV.

I was thinking that we are very lucky in Hong Kong. Most of us are financially well-off and it’s good to help those who are not.

I thought of doing a fun run like in DB, but one of my friends said: why don’t you do a beer dash? There had been a beer dash in DB some years before but they had stopped it.

Instead of it being a very competitive run we thought maybe we’d just have something fun.

Post-race

Q: How did you choose the route, starting up by the prison?

Because we had alcohol involved we didn’t want to make the route too far.

I used to walk my dogs along the catchwater. It’s quite a nice flat route – and then goes downhill to the beach.

Q: What are your memories of the first beer dash?

It was quite a process because I’m not a charitable organisation. It was quite hard finding out how to get it going, with the correct procedure and the correct permits, and who to ask. There was a lot of red tape and hoops to jump through.

I think we had 120 runners that year.

A few local restaurants sponsored beers for the different stations. We decided to call it the ‘International Beer Dash,’ because we had a different type of beer at each station. There are five stations, so five different beers.

Mingling

Q: After nine beer dashes, what are the highlights?

To me the best part of the whole day is how everyone gets on with each other. There must be a million photos taken. Everybody just mingles. It’s people from all over Hong Kong. There are locals, foreigners, tourists and they all just have fun.

The costumes and the amount of effort people put into their costume absolutely amazes me. And we have raised more than HK$600,000.

Q: Who are the beneficiaries?

I was friendly with Okka Scherer, who runs Villa Kunterbunt [a dog rescue organisation]. A lot of the dogs she gets have been left behind by foreigners. I see the dedication of people like her, so I have tried to do more for the animals.

We give money to PALS, Villa Kunterbunt, Lantau Buffalo Association, South Lantau Buffalo Society, Herdsup.

Mel and Bighead Boy

Q: This is your last Beer Dash. Do you have any special plans?

We have made it in memory of Mark Parlett, a board member of LIM, who passed away last year unexpectedly. He’s been at every dash and he’s always been an active supporter.

Q: You are moving away. Will you be coming back?

We’re moving away to Pok Fu Lam to be closer to our daughters’ school.

But definitely we will be back here. We are not going for good, we’re just going for a couple of years.

Q: Who’s going to take over the beer dash?

I have a few people who have contacted me. There’s nothing definite, although Lantau Base Camp have said they might be interested. They run a lot of events already.

Registrations are still open for the 2018 Lantau International Beer Dash. Click here to sign up.

Photo (top): Mel and Bighead Boy at feeding time

Three S. Lantau sites up for sale in govt land auction

Three South Lantau plots, including a two-hectare site in Cheung Sha, have been slated for auction in the government’s annual land sale programme.

The three sites are all zoned for low-density residential use.

They are also all within 1 km of the San Shek Wan roundabout, the closest point on South Lantau to Tung Chung and the HK-Macau bridge, and are almost certain to become high-end residential developments.

The largest site, Lot 738 in DD 332 (above), covers the area surrounding the police base at Upper Cheung Sha, running right up to the Acacia Villa apartments.

The 2.15 ha plot is the fifth biggest of all of the 32 properties in the Lands Department sale programme.

Across South Lantau Road is a 2,730 sq metre plot, Lot 765, just next door to a 2,480 sq metre site that sold for a record HK$210 million last August (the site remains undeveloped).

At nearby San Shek Wan is the third site, Lot 766, just east of the YWCA camp, which is 5,770 sq metres.

All sites are zoned Residential 4, which stipulates a maximum plot ratio of 0.8.

Photo (top): Lot 766, Cheung Sha

Tree-planting day in Lantau South Country Park

The AFCD will hold a tree-planting day in Lantau South Country Park on April 8.

Participants will plant tree seedlings on lower Lantau Peak on Lantau Trail Section 3.

The AFCD will provide the seedlings and planting tools. Volunteers are asked to bring their own gloves and a bag for carrying seedlings.

Volunteers can enrol at the registration point at the Pak Kung Au picnic area from 9am to 10.30am.

The planting site is approximately 45 minutes from Pak Kung Au.

Other tree planting days, jointly held with Friends of the Country Parks, will take place Shing Mun Country Park on March 18 and Sai Kung West Country Park on April 22.

Lantau bus drivers to get shorter shifts – next year

Lantau bus drivers are to get shorter shifts and longer breaks in the wake of the Tai Po bus disaster – but it may take more than a year.

Under new Transport Department guidelines, the maximum length of a driving shift has been reduced from 11 to 10 hours and rest breaks have been increased from 30 to 40 minutes.

Additionally, the maximum time on shift, including driving time and breaks, must be cut from 14 to 12 hours, drivers are to be allowed at least 22 hours in off-duty breaks every three successive shifts.

Nineteen people died and 65 were injured in the February 10 crash, in which a KMB bus overturned on Tai Po Road.

In a statement issued February 23, the New Lantao Bus Co “expressed its support and active cooperation” with the new rules.

“We will communicate with the bus captains as soon as possible and discuss the timing and details of the implementation of the new guidelines.”

The company said it would “endeavor to maintain existing services” while implementing the new rules.

It has plenty of time to do so, however. The new rules, which apply to all franchiced bus operators, do not have to be introduced until the second quarter of 2019.

But the reduction in driver shift times adds further financial pressure on NLB, a subsidiary of listed company Kwoon Chung Bus Holdings.

The Transport Department told it to cut costs after a “not satisfactory” first-half financial result three months ago. The new rules now introduce a further layer of costs.

Police seize $5m in electronics contraband at Sham Wat

Police seized HK$5 million in electronics and timber goods after intercepting a smuggling operation at Sham Wat in northwest Lantau on Friday evening.

Police and customs officers spotted a speedboat with a man behaving suspiciously at the remote village, Apple Daily reports.

A van arrived at the dock and four men alighted and started transferring goods to the boat.  Police moved in but the suspects escaped in the speedboat, leaving behind 18 boxes of material.

The boxes were found to contain approximately 2,110 mobile phones, 120 tablet PCs, 250 cameras and about 150 kg of timber material, believed to be rosewood.

The case has been forwarded to the Customs and Excise Department for further investigation.

Firefighters battle overnight to put out Sunny Bay hillfire

Firefighters took more than eight hours to extinguish a hillfire in Sunny Bay on Thursday evening.

The fire, which broke out at about 5:30pm, burned on a two-kilometre front along the North  Lantau hills.

Firefighters had to bring their equipment up the hill from North Lantau Highway to fight the blaze.

By 2am the fire was contained to an area of just 100 sq metres.

The cause of the blaze is not known.

Photo: Headline Daily News

 

 

 

HZM Bridge quota over-subscribed, looks set to rise again

Vehicle permits for the new HK-Macau bridge are already over-subscribed and the low quota seems almost certain to be raised again.

The Guangdong and Hong Kong governments set the current quota of 10,000 private vehicles at the end of last year, up from the original number of 3000 agreed on just four months earlier.

The Guangdong Public Security Bureau Traffic Administration has revealed that up to February 22 it had issued had 11,121 permits.

Demand has been so high that touts are reportedly offering them for as much as 400,000 to 600,000 yuan.

Inevitably, the two governments are once again in discussions to lift the quota, Sing Tao reports.

They have also talked about cracking down on speculation, but the low quota seems guaranteed to create a black market.

For whatever reason, and in contrast to the official enthusiasm for the Greater Bay Area, the two governments have made the permits extremely difficult to obtain.

The 10,000 quota on private vehicles contrasts with the forecast 14,000 vehicles expected to cross the bridge each day, of which roughly half are expected to be private.

The three governments, and Hong Kong in particular, need bridge traffic to recoup the bridge’s astronomical cost. They will levy a 150 yuan (HK$177) toll.

Up to now, permits have been be issued only to Hong Kong businesses deemed to be ‘hi-tech,’ or have paid more than 100,000 yuan tax in Guangdong in the past three years.

Residents who have donated more than 5 million yuan to nominated Guangdong charities, or are members of the Guangdong NPC or NPPCC, are also eligible.

But Sing Tao reports that the governments are considering lowering the threshold as well as raising the quota.

Among other things they may cut the tax requirements and open up to a wider range of businesses and other organisations.

Budget promises local health care centre and hospital expansion

District health centres are to be established across Hong Kong and planning will shortly begin for the expansion of North Lantau Hospital, the government’s 2018-19 budget reveals.

Handing down the budget today, Financial Secretary Paul Chan says the first centre would be built in Kwai Chung in the third quarter of 2019, “after which we will progressively set up such centres in all 18 districts.”

He said he would set aside required resources to support the initiative, although he did not say where in Islands district the community centre would be located.

Chan said community-based healthcare could raise awareness of personal healthcare management and improve medical and rehabilitation services, thus reducing the load on hospitals.

North Lantau Hospital, which hit the headlines last year after an Audit Commission report assailed it for waste and mismanagement, is also set to expand. The commission found a fifth of the hospital was empty and some expensive medical equipment had been barely used.

Planning for the expansion will get underway in the 2020s to cope with the influx of more than 100,000 new residents within the next decade, Chan said.

Following release of the budget, Hospital Authority chairman Prof John Leung said the authority would commission more services for North Lantau hospital later this year.

Tung Chung ozone worse, but PM2.5 has improved

The ozone level in Tung Chung has worsened in the last five years, but the presence of all other major pollutants has declined, according to government figures.

Air quality data released to Legco today show ozone levels increased 9% between 2013 and 2017, but level PM2.5 particulates fell 19% and  sulphur dioxide is down 36% (see below).

Responding to a question from People Power member Raymond Chan, Environment Secretary Wong Kam-sing said the high ozone level was a result of “the influence of regional pollution.”

Chan said a number of Tung Chung residents had told him they felt local air quality had deteriorated in recent months and feared the opening of the Macau bridge would make the air even worse.

But Wong said apart from ozone, the level of air pollutants in Tung Chung was within government air quality targets.

Source: EPD

But he admitted that no assessment of the air quality impact of the HK-Macau bridge had been made since 2009. The 30-kilometre main bridge is due to open in May.

Wong said a Highways Department study prior to construction had concluded that “air quality at sensitive receivers in the vicinity” of the bridge would comply with government targets.

He said there was no plan to further review Tung Chung air or the effects of traffic crossing the new bridge.

But he said the EPD would continue to monitor the air quality across Hong Kong, including Tung Chung, and was also reviewing the current air quality objectives (AQOs).