Tuen Mun Road (屯門公路)

There are many expressways thought to be haunted due to fatal accidents. In Thailand we have the China-Thailand expressway, in Malaysia; we have the Karak Highway. While in Hong Kong we shouldn’t miss the Tuen Mun Road (屯門公路). It is a major expressway in Hong Kong which connects Tuen Mun with Tsuen Wan, within New Territories. It is part of Hong Kong's Route 9, which circumnavigates the New Territories.

The Beginning:

As early as 14 days after the opening of Tuen Mun Road in 1978, a fatal traffic accident happened. On 20^th, May of the same year; a Mercedes Benz travelled from Tuen Mun to Tsuen Wan at 5:40am rammed into a light pole near Sham Tseng Bridge (深井桥) and two person died. Again, On Aughst 23^rd, 1981 an ambulance rammed over the divider fence and collided with a double-decker bus on the opposite lane. Three died in the accident and 29 passengers injured. Later, a monument inscribed with ‘喃呒阿弥陀佛’ (Namo Amitabah Buddhaya) was erected at the scene.

 Many big and small traffic accidents happened throughout the years including 5 of the most severe accidents in Hong Kong history. Since the construction of Tuen Mun Road, it has maintained 3 top Hong Kong records in transport history: the most accidents, the most deaths and the most car pileups.

Many locals believe that if an expressway is accident prone, then the design must have violated some Feng Shui principles. However, many people also believe that those accidents are caused by those restless spirits of those who have died on the road; and these spirits wanted to look for ‘replacement bodies’.

Tuen Mun Road started to be haunted after a fatal accident happened on July 10^th, 2003 around 6:30am. A Neoplan Centroliner double-decker bus on route 256M with 40 passengers fell from 30m height into a slope near Ting Kau Village (汀九村) after skidded with a container trailer. This incident resulted in 21 deaths and 20 injuries. And, this is the road accidents with most fatalities in the Hong Kong history. You can read about the Tuen Men Road double-decker incident in the intranet.

The Ghost Stories From Drivers:

Many ghost stories entailed with a series of fatal road accidents along Tuen Mun Road.  Story has it that there a double-decker bus driver when passing through the Ting Kau Bridge (汀九橋), he saw the supposedly empty upper deck was full with ‘white clothing’ people. In another story, a taxi driver thought he bumped into a ‘people’ but when he stopped his taxi to investigate, the so-called ‘people’ was actually a paper manikin used in funeral service. Yet many drivers claimed that there are gambler ghosts playing mah-jong on Tuen Mun Road sides. If a driver sees only three figures playing mah-jong, then the fourth player would be the person who sees these mah-jong playing ghosts! This is pretty scary don’t you think so?

Mike is a movie actor who is a frequent Tuen Mun Road user. Once, he sworn that as he was travelling at night; he saw a figure rushed into the road in front of his car. So, Mike stepped on his brake and his car lost control and skidded with another car that ran parallel to his. Later, when both of the drivers stopped their cars; they found nothing on or beside the road. Because of this accident, Mike spent a lot of time and money in and out of the court. He suspected the ‘thing’ he saw was a restless soul of someone who died there; or perhaps Mike shouldn’t have stopped his car at the first place?

The Ghost Sport Car:

It is said that during one of the late night in 1997, a red sport car drove with a speed of more than 100km/hour. It was caught by police’s speed camera. Strangely speaking, a police roadblock setup in front of the road did not discover any traces of red spot car as informed by their fellow colleagues. Upon investigating the photo, the red sport car was already destroyed in a freak accident a few months ago. The driver was crushed to death on the spot. How then could this sport car appear in the photo then?

Ghost Riders:

It was around the 7^th month of 1998, rumour has it that a group of traffic officers captured the photo of two motorcycles performed illegal racing at midnight. So, two traffic policemen were despatched to intercept the illegal racers. They hoped to force those two racers into a pre-setup roadblock and apprehend them. Just as when these two racing motorcycles were forced to a dead end, which was about 50m from the road block; both of the racing motorbikes suddenly vanished into thin air in front of the police officers. Upon investigation, according to police records, both of the motorbikes were destroyed in separate road accidents in 1994 and 1996; both drivers were killed on the spot. Of course, this has become another X-File of Tuen Mun Road.

The Movie Star Who Retired Early:

This is a lesser known story told by my friends in the movie industry.

Many years ago, a group of actors and actresses went for a tour and they were loaded into a van and a two-seated sport car. At first everyone was happy and the journey was relatively smooth until both vehicles approached the Tuen Men Road. A lady actress who was sitting in the van suddenly became agitated with some joke her friends threw at her. In a gust of fury, the actress demanded that she want to sit in the sports car which was then travelling in front of the van.

Since there were only two seats in the sport car, the actress who was sitting in the sport car had to compromise and exchange the seat with this agitated lady actress. After the seat change, the car and van restarted their journeys.

Somewhere in the middle of the Tuen Mun Road, the sport car suddenly lose control and rammed into a granite wall by the roadside. The sport car was destroyed and both passenger and driver were immediately rushed to hospital. Though both of the casualties were saved, this unfortunate actress had to cut her acting career short because the accident also destroyed her pretty face.

Was the incident spirit related?

Of course, there are many ghost stories told and untold about Tuen Men Road. Most of those stories can be found in the intranet.