Traffic accident sends 18 tourists to hospital

Eighteen tourists were sent to hospital on Saturday following a traffic accident between their tour bus and a van.

The accident occurred in the Avenida Dr Sun Yat-Sen near the Macau Fisherman’s Wharf.  Preliminary information points to the collision occurring due to the bus trying to avoid a pedestrian who was crossing the street.

Eighteen out of the 40 tourists from mainland China – 17 women and one man, aged between 25 and 68 years old – were sent to the emergency ward of the Hospital Conde de São Januário to receive treatment for minor injuries, mostly bruises.

The Health Bureau stated that only one woman was sent for an X-Ray of her skull, with no problems detected, and that she also had a cut on one of her arms. The woman has been safely discharged from the hospital.

This is not the first time in Macau that tour buses have been involved in road collisions that led to hospitalization. The most serious incident to date occurred in August 2016 when 32 tourists from the mainland were injured, with three of them in serious condition, after their tour bus crashed into a building on Rua da Entena.

Concerns regarding tour bus safety in that area have been addressed by recent measures from the government, forbidding such vehicles to be driven in some old areas of the city.