Steelmaker and transport company insurer found not liable despite loading mistakes
Lawyers have pointed to a driver’s own actions and a possibly flawed legal approach as thwarting a $926,000 payout for serious injuries due to a truck crash.
HopgoodGanim senior associate Scott Macoun and solicitor Abbey Wilkinson note that once the New South Wales Court of Appeal accepted speed was the cause of a truck carrying Bluescope steel coils to roll, the fact they had been loaded wrongly became irrelevant.
The driver was working for now-defunct transport firm Mannway when the truck rolled on a Princes Highway intersection.
BlueScope failed to inform Mannway that it had changed its coils specifications, which in turn altered correct loading guidelines that would ensure wooden wedges were in contact with the cargo.
A 2013 judgement found that BlueScope and Mannway had breached duty of care to the driver but this was appealed by BlueScope and Mannway’s insurer, Workers Compensation Nominal Insurer, particularly on evidence relating to truck speed.
“The Court of Appeal indicated that a broader claim against the employer may have been successful, such as a claim based on failure to provide adequate training in relation to driving trucks around corners at an appropriate speed,” the lawyers say of the case, BlueScope Steel Ltd v Cartwright [2015] NSWCA 25.