GLOUCESTER Shire Council has paid just over $6000 compensation for the scrap metal lost following the fatal truck accident on Thunderbolts Way two years ago.
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The accident in February 2014 occurred after two trucks travelling east collided when the truck behind, carrying scrap metal, lost its brakes. The truck in front tried to block him to slow him down but both ended up over the side of Thunderbolts Way. The front truck’s 32-year-old driver died at the scene and the 47-year-old man and 51- year-old woman in the second truck suffered non-life threatening injuries.
A trail of debris more than 100m long was left along the road. The Thunderbolts Way was closed to all traffic for more than 15 hours while the rescue effort took place.
But according to council’s general manager Danny Green, the insurer of Kempsey based Matthews Metal Management subsequently hit Gloucester Shire Council with the bill for the cost of the recyclable material transported on the back of its truck.
“As the road authority, if a road accident causes a blockage on the road we have to react. When it went over the hill, it left a pile of debris on the road. Council’s role was to clear that road,” Mr Green said.
The mix of recycled waste material and road debris was taken back to Gloucester’s landfill depot and the private contractors then in charge of the landfill site on-sold the salvaged metal to a recycler “almost instantaneously”.
“We were then hit with a bill for the cost of that recyclable material. But I took the view that nobody knew what that load was comprised of,” he said, emphasising that guard rails, road gravel and other metal were included in the load.
“Nobody knew how much metal in the load had been whose.”
He added that “yes, we did take off some of the recycled metal”, but an amount of metal was still down the side of the hill as it was unable to be recovered.
“We know that so much has gone missing. No one yet has been down to get it.”
To prevent any further action and cognisant of the fact that the final numbers of which metal was whose could never be confirmed, council ultimately negotiated a “very minimal” out of court settlement in November to “clear it out of the way”.
Inclusive of costs to the insurer, $6313 was paid without admission of liability by Gloucester Shire Council.
“Interestingly, they didn’t make any moves to subpoena the landfill contractor,” Mr Green said