Princes Freeway pile-up vehicle damage is expected to be covered by the Department of Transport and Planning after accident caused commuter chaos.
The damage sustained to vehicles earlier this week that travelled along the Princes Freeway in Melbourne’s west will be corrected by Victoria’s Department of Transport and Planning (DTP).
Early on Wednesday morning, a steel plate connector dislodged from a segment of the busy M1 Freeway between the Princes Freeway and Duncans Road near Werribee, exposing an unsealed section of road.
It is reported parts of the exposed steel joint caused a truck to flip at around 4:20 am on Wednesday morning, leading to a 10-car pile-up that closed multiple lanes, and caused an 8km tailback and delays of up to four hours for commuters.
According to a DTP spokesperson, the incident was due to “human error” with that section of the road undergoing maintenance prior, and roadwork crews leaving hours before the accident.
"We apologise to everyone affected by the incident on the Princes Freeway," the spokesperson said.
"The incident was caused by human error during routine maintenance works on the bridge over the Werribee River."
According to reports, no one was injured at the scene, but it has now surfaced that at least one person involved has suffered minor injuries and is seeking legal counsel.
Questions have also been raised about remediation of damage to vehicles caused by the broken piece of road.
The Victorian government has a process in place where affected vehicle owners can submit a ‘Notice of Incident and Claim’ which “must be used by a person who proposes to commence court proceedings in relation to an incident arising out of the condition of a freeway or arterial road”.
While under normal circumstances, the damage threshold needs to total $1640 or more to make a claim, it is understood the DTP is investigating all claims regardless of monetary value.
It stands to reason that damage to a newer premium vehicle would equate to a higher repair bill than a 20-year-old mainstream model, even if both suffered identical harm.
The overall compensation amount also removes the threshold number – or $1640 – from the total, similar to an insurance excess, but it is unclear if this will be applied in the Princes Freeway incident given the circumstances.
Currently, the ‘Notice of Incident and Claim’ website is “experiencing higher than usual demands”, but Drive understands the DTP is proactively contacting affected vehicle owners and will compensate damage in full.
A statement by DTO Executive Director of Maintenance Michael Bailey, as published by 9News, encourages impacted drivers to reach out.
"For each driver that was impacted we encourage them to call us on 13 11 70 or jump online at transport.vic.gov.au and complete the documents that they need to, to let us know that they have been impacted, who they are and what that impact was," Bailey said.
"It is part of our standard routine maintenance program that we fix expansion joints on bridges.
"Typically, the steel plates are put down and we can reopen the roads.
"Overnight, one has come loose, we believe through human error and we believe that has caused the damage.
"When they left the site, they believed it was safe.
"For at least 10 years we've been working with them, they've done hundreds of expansion joints for us and without any issue.
"They're one of our preferred contractors and at this stage we'll continue to work with them."
Tung Nguyen has been in the automotive journalism industry for over a decade, cutting his teeth at various publications before finding himself at Drive in 2024. With experience in news, feature, review, and advice writing, as well as video presentation skills, Tung is a do-it-all content creator. Tung’s love of cars first started as a child watching Transformers on Saturday mornings, as well as countless hours on PlayStation’s Gran Turismo, meaning his dream car is a Nissan GT-R, with a Liberty Walk widebody kit, of course.
