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Driver loses tyre blowout compensation case

NSW Judge finds JJ Richards truck accident not ‘blameless’ — thus not eligible for compensation

 

A truck driver lost a case for compensation against a waste management company after the New South Wales District Court found that a “blameless accident” had not taken place.

The case centred on an incident when the driver was injured after the heavily-laden truck he was driving, in wet conditions, slid down an embankment after turning a right hand bend.

The driver had alleged that the accident happened after a defective front tyre blew – causing a loud popping sound, before the vehicle pulled to the left and left the road surface.

But the driver did not claim that the owner of the vehicle, JJ Richards & Sons, had been negligent – with Judge David Wilson saying in his decision that evidence showed vehicle tyres were inspected by a third party “on a daily basis with a view to repairing or replacing any tyres which showed any sign of wear or defect”.


JJ Richards & Sons has also implemented its own telematics system – which it told the NSW government about earlier this year in a submission to the Staysafe Committee. Read more here


Wilson found there was no evidence that proved what had caused the tyre to rapidly deflate, only noting that the tyre had been separated from the wheel rim after the accident.

“There is no evidence how the rapid deflation of the tyre could have been prevented, or the risk of it reduced, by any additional maintenance or care on the part of the defendant,” he wrote in his decision.

Instead, the driver argued that the failure of the tyre while the truck was on the road was not the fault of the owner or the driver.

Under the NSW Motor Accidents Compensation Act 1999, an injury caused through a “blameless motor accident” involving a vehicle covered by insurance is deemed to be the fault of the owner or the driver of the vehicle – for the purposes of compensation.

While Wilson wrote that he found the driver to be an “honest and frank witness, doing his best to provide a truthful account”, he nonetheless found that he was “mistaken” about hearing the popping sound of the tyre blowing out.

Wilson said that there had been no mention of the sound when the driver first provided a statement about the incident, in October 2014, or again in affidavits sworn in May and June 2015.

“I prefer the earlier and, particularly, the contemporaneous statements of the [driver] to the evidence given in court more than six years after the accident,” Wilson wrote.

“Accordingly, I find that the sole cause of the accident and the plaintiff’s injuries was his failure to properly steer or control the vehicle at a safe speed around the right hand bend.”

“It is not necessary to determine what caused the tyre deflation but I do find that it occurred after the [driver] had lost control of the truck,” Wilson wrote.

The driver will be required to pay the company’s costs as a result of the decision.

 

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