“After that, [while] I was still talking to the cops, an abalone truck did exactly what I did – skidded left, then skidded right, and then he flipped right in front of me and slid an extra 100 metres past me.
“If I was on the road still, he would have run right into me. I watched him like I was in a movie.”
David Nguyen’s van was damaged during the crash on the Princes Freeway early on Wednesday.Credit: Nine News Melbourne
Nguyen saw a few other cars hit either the exposed road or the loose plate before police arrived and closed the freeway.
“If they didn’t close the road it could have been murder, man,” he said.
Nguyen was one of five drivers involved in collisions on the freeway at Werribee, in Melbourne’s outer west, about 4.20am on Wednesday following road works on the same stretch of road earlier that morning.
The crashes caused major disruptions and hours-long delays for thousands of drivers, closing the city-bound lanes of the main road between Geelong and Melbourne for much of the day.
A 200-kilogram steel plate that came loose was blamed for causing the four cars and a truck to crash. The truck rolled and spilled diesel across the lanes.
The temporary steel plate was put over an expansion joint at the Duncans Road bridge near Werribee, following routine maintenance work which was completed at 3am.
The plate quickly came loose, exposing the steel spikes of the joint and causing vehicles to crash as they drove over it.
The Department of Transport’s executive director of road maintenance Michael Bailey apologised on Wednesday afternoon for the incident, which he blamed on “human error”.
Workers inspecting the exposed steel rods in the exposed expansion joint on the Princes Freeway on Wednesday. Credit: Nine News
Bailey said multiple road maintenance firms had been involved in the works to replace the expansion joint. He said a temporary plate had been bolted into place over the joint, but it was not clear if it had been secured with asphalt too, as would typically happen.
Transport department officers had been on site during the job and had deemed that the work was up to standard.
“They were very satisfied,” Bailey said. “The plate installed was deemed safe at 3am. By 4am the plate had become loose. There’s a failing by someone at some point.”
The crash has left Nguyen’s $50,000 van a write-off. He needs the vehicle for his livelihood carting Asian vegetables grown at his market garden in Anakie, north of Geelong, to sell at Box Hill in Melbourne’s east.
Nguyen is one of five motorists now weighing up whether to seek compensation from the government, or use their insurance to cover the cost of repairs.
In Victoria, the Department of Transport and Planning is liable for any damage to vehicles caused by the roads it maintains, provided the cost of that damage is greater than $1640.
On Wednesday, Bailey said the department would consider paying for repairs below the $1640 threshold as well.
People can lodge notice of incident and claim forms if they feel the government is liable for the damage, and can request a review if they are unhappy with the resulting assessment.
The metal plate that became dislodged after being bolted down by roadworkers a few hours earlier.Credit: 3AW
Nguyen said his van was worth about $55,000, and that by early Thursday afternoon he was yet to hear from anyone from the transport department.
Nguyen said his van was insured, but that he would still have to pay an excess of $1500 to get it repaired.
Heath Shepherd was travelling not far behind Nguyen in his Nissan Qashqai. The first thing he saw was hazard lights in the distance.
“As I’m driving, the car in front of me swerved to his right, hit the plate, and I tried to swerve left but got the full brunt of [the hole],” he said. “It hit the left-hand tyre, under the radiator. I don’t know how much damage there is yet because it hasn’t been assessed.”
Like Nguyen, Shepherd had also just discovered on Thursday that he has to pay an excess on his insurance, even though the damage to his vehicle wasn’t his fault.
“I just found out when I did the online form through Bingle, and because there were no [other] cars involved [in the crash] we have to pay an excess, which I find a bit hard to stomach,” he said.
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“I think it’s about $1000.”
Shepherd said the tyres and rims on his car were write-offs, and he’s waiting to see if the Nissan’s undercarriage was also damaged, adding further costs to the repair job.
Nguyen said a Country Fire Authority volunteer took a photo of the hole in the road and showed it to the people who crashed, but it wasn’t until he saw TV footage hours later that he realised how big it was.
“We’re lucky we didn’t die,” he said.
He’s since had to hire a van at about $550 a week to continue making deliveries to Box Hill. He even salvaged some of the vegetables from his damaged van and continued on to the market after the crash to recoup some money.
Shepherd is a truck driver who lives in Craigieburn, but was down in Ocean Grove for a fortnightly stay in his caravan. He starts work early each morning, which is why he was driving on the Princes Freeway just after 4am on Wednesday.
Motorists faced delays of up to two hours on the Princes Highway on Wednesday.Credit: Nine News
He said he was also facing daily dilemmas as a result of the crash.
“I’m using my daughter’s car at the moment because I still have to go to work every day, and then I’ve got to take my wife’s car the next day because my daughter’s got something on – she has to work herself,” he said.
“I haven’t been offered a hire car or anything like that while I get my car fixed.”
The Age has contacted the Department of Transport and Planning for comment.
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