Every two days a passenger on the MTR system is injured by having a foot or leg caught in the gap between the station platform and the train, says Secretary for Transport and Housing Eva Cheng.
Some 199 incidents were reported in 2007, 204 last year and 155 between January and October this year, according to Cheng, in response to questions from lawmakers.
Nearly 30 per cent, or 202 cases, took place on platforms equipped with platform-gap fillers.
In 2007, 66 of the accidents took place on platforms equipped with platform-gap fillers. The figure was 70 last year and 66 in the first 10 months of this year.
Cheng said that when studying the feasibility of fitting automatic platform gates on platforms along the East Rail Line, MTR Corporation officials had found that gaps were relatively wide at some stations with curved platforms.
Installing automatic platform gates might make it harder to see the wide platform gaps, she said, and therefore the corporation first had to conduct a trial on the mechanical gap-filler system.
