A delivery rider was left paralysed after a crash on So Kwun Po Road near a roundabout in Sheung Shui on May 1, while returning from a delivery. He suffered a C3/4 spinal-cord injury and remains in hospital. He looked at a Keeta order notification for about two seconds, then swerved to avoid a vehicle stopped ahead and collided with it.
His wife visits after work to help care for him, including feeding him and easing his stiffness. She is also trying to find a suitable care-home placement: she said a hospital social worker had urged the family to start looking, but relatively few homes could accommodate him, partly because he is under 60.
The injury has also left the household facing financial strain. His wife said the family received a tax demand of HK$80,000, including provisional tax, while her husband has no income. She told InMediaHK that she had reported his injury to Keeta in May and submitted documents to the insurer in July, but was still waiting for an outcome.
Keeta said the insurer had received the claim and was processing it. The company said the rider was logged into the app when the crash happened and the incident was within the insurance cover, but a complete set of documents, including a full medical-assessment report, was needed before the claim could be assessed. His wife said she had since received a request for a doctor’s certificate.
The Hong Kong Christian Industrial Committee’s project officer said the proposed injury-compensation framework could leave platform workers without cover while waiting for or claiming orders, if protected work time is limited to collecting and delivering them. The committee recommended that the government include those periods and provide protection no worse than under the Employees’ Compensation Ordinance. It also said Keeta’s order-claim system can distract riders and increase crash risks, and called for the system to be cancelled and for support for the family.
The Labour Department said its Employees’ Compensation Division received a report of the rider’s injury on October 13 and would contact the platform. The government aims to submit legislative proposals on platform-worker injury compensation to the Legislative Council by the end of 2026.