Joe was at the So Kwun Po Road roundabout in Sheung Shui when an order notification popped up on his phone, accompanied by a shrill audio cue. Knowing all too well that he would be penalised by delivery platform Keeta for ignoring it, he took his eyes off the road and looked down.
It was in those two seconds that he lost his focus, slammed into a broken-down car in front of him, and fell to the ground. Moments later, he realised that he could not move.
Joe only sustained minor surface injuries and did not break any bones. But the crash compressed the intervertebral disc between the third and fourth segments of his spinal cord, causing near-complete paralysis.
Since the accident, the 54-year-old has regained the ability to twitch his middle and ring fingers and flex his left leg, but sometimes suffers from violent involuntary muscle spasms and gets pins and needles in seemingly random places.
His wife, Yee, does not dare give herself hope — doctors have said that the damage to his spine is largely permanent, meaning he will likely remain mostly paralysed for the rest of his life. Keeta, a food delivery platform backed by Chinese retail giant Meituan, is still processing his insurance claim five months after the accident.
To riders and labour activists, Joe’s case serves as a warning. Under a planned piece of legislation that the government says will “protect” platform workers, delivery workers involved in road accidents between orders — like Joe — would be left ineligible...
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