Hong Kong police were trying on Sunday to understand the causes of the overturning, the day before, of a double-decker bus that killed 19 people in the north of the former British colony.
The vehicle overturned on a road in Tai Po, in the northern New Territories, coming to rest against a lamppost. Sixty-five people were injured, some critically.
“The 30-year-old bus driver has been arrested for dangerous driving resulting in death and injury,” police said in a statement Sunday. “He remains in custody pending further investigation.”
Most of the injured and some of the dead were on the upper level of the bus, Chan Hing-yu of the Hong Kong Fire Department told reporters.
Authorities suspect the driver exceeded the speed limit and lost control of the bus on a downhill slope, Lee Chi-wai, a senior police official, told reporters. He was uninjured and sober, he added.
Passengers claimed the driver seemed agitated after being criticized for being late by some people on board, according to local media.
The city’s worst road accident occurred in 2003 when a double-decker bus collided with a truck, before it fell off a bridge, killing 21 people.
Eighteen people also died in a bus accident in 2008.
In 2012, a collision between a ferry and a pleasure craft resulted in 39 deaths.
