Transcript of remarks by STH
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Reporter: What has the Government done and what the Government will do after the incident ?
Secretary for Transport and Housing: First of all, the MTR Corporation has in place detailed operational and railway safety manuals. I just have a look at those manuals and these manuals are updated, improved from time to time, and these manuals are subject to external audit every three years. In terms of installations, there are sufficient fire extinguishers both on the trains and also on the station. As we can see from yesterday's incident, the speed of reaction taken by the MTR station staff was very prompt and basically within a matter of a few minutes, the passengers were assisted to evacuate from the trains and eventually from the station as well. And very soon afterwards, free shuttle (bus) service was provided because the station was closed. The free shuttle (buses) were provided to help the passengers. The Police, the Fire Services staff arrived at the scene very promptly, again within two or three minutes after the alert was raised. So in terms of reaction to a major incident, I would say the response was very good. But of course we can always learn something from an incident, so therefore the MTR Corporation has set up an investigation panel to look into the incident, to try to draw lessons from it. On the side of the Government, we expect the MTR Corporation to submit a detailed report. The regulator of railway safety is the Electrical and Mechanical Services Department (EMSD), so the department of course will follow up this case. In fact, the EMSD staff arrived at the scene yesterday as well. I expect both the Government and the Corporation to work together to try to learn from this incident and to see what areas should be improved in terms of security and safety arrangements.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Saturday, February 11, 2017
Issued at HKT 16:38
Issued at HKT 16:38
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