Former Hong Kong Muay Thai champion given 2 years for fatal traffic accident

A former Hong Kong Muay Thai champion has been jailed for two years for dangerous driving causing the deaths of a prominent plastic surgeon and another while working as a part-time taxi driver last year.

Kok Yat-sum, 34, on Tuesday pleaded guilty at the District Court for ignoring a red light and causing a double-decker bus to crash into her taxi at an intersection in Wan Chai on the night of January 14, 2024.

The defendant was a Thai boxer who triumphed in Group B of the women’s 57kg category in the Hong Kong Muay Thai championship in 2022.

The court heard how the collision claimed the lives of Kok’s two passengers, including Dr Wilson Ho Wai-sun, 59, who was known for providing reconstructive surgery to six burn victims of the Pat Sin Leng hill fire that killed five people and injured 13 others in 1996. A 47-year-old woman from mainland China also died in the incident.

Kok, who worked primarily as an occupational safety supervisor, told police that she thought she had crossed a green light when she drove from the northbound lane of Fleming Road into the intersection with Harbour Road at around 9.20pm. She was charged three days later and has been detained since.

Defence senior counsel Vinci Lam Wing-sai said in mitigation that Kok took up the part-time job to help her family make ends meet following her parents’ retirement.