A court has ordered Daniel Andrews to hand over personal records from his phone and credit cards related to a traffic accident with a teenage cyclist.
The former Victorian premier, who resigned last year, was served with a Supreme Court summons outside his home last week demanding he produce documents.
They are required as part of a civil claim brought by lawyers for Ryan Meuleman, who was 15 and cycling in Blairgowrie, on the Mornington Peninsula, when he was hit by the Andrews family’s SUV in 2013.
Of particular interest is who Mr Andrews called after the accident and whether that included his then chief of staff, Brett Curran, who is the current deputy commissioner of Victoria Police.
Lawyers Arnold Bloch Leibler will represent Mr Andrews in the case, the same firm his government hired at taxpayer expense to negotiate a huge compensation deal following the cancellation of the Commonwealth Games, it reports. The Herald of the Sun.
Former Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has been ordered to produce his phone and credit card records relating to a 2013 accident with a cyclist while he was in the passenger seat and his wife Catherine was driving (in the photo together).
Cyclist Ryan Meuleman, then 15, suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs and lost 90 percent of his spleen (pictured in hospital after the accident).
The Andrews had been driving their Ford Territory SUV to their holiday rental on the Mornington Peninsula (pictured, with a damaged windscreen).
It is also understood that Mr Andrews’ wife Catherine, who was driving the Ford Territory when the accident occurred as they were heading to the family holiday rental home in Sorrento, is represented by Arnold Bloch Leibler.
Meuleman is seeking damages from the law firm Slater & Gordon, whom he hired after the accident, for allegedly failing to conduct a “full and adequate investigation of the circumstances” of the incident.
The then-teenager suffered a punctured lung, broken ribs, internal bleeding and lost 90 percent of his spleen, requiring hospitalization for 11 days.
He claims he was banned from speaking about the accident when he accepted an $80,000 compensation payment for his injuries in 2016 from the Road Accident Commission, brokered by Slater & Gordon, who he claims failed to act in his best interests.
Mr. and Mrs. Andrews have said that Mr. Meulman ‘boned’ his car, but he claims he was riding slowly on the bike, which belonged to his sister, down a gravel road when he crossed the road and the SUV, that was traveling at high speed, ‘came out’. from nowhere’ and hit him.
Mr Andrews told police according to the official report: “The cyclist was traveling at high speed and collided very hard with our car at a perfect right angle.” I want to make it clear: the cyclist collided with our vehicle.’
Mrs Andrews said: “What I remember about the incident is that the cyclist completely smashed and compressed the windscreen right in front of me on the driver’s side.
“It was almost as if the cyclist had fallen on top of our car from above.”
Images published in 2022 – grainy photocopies of police originals – show the SUV’s windshield shattered by a strong impact on the driver’s side.
Police photocopied originals show the SUV’s windshield shattered by a strong impact on the driver’s side.
But they also show body damage in the front corner, in front of the front tire, which the Meulemans insist supports their claim that the Andrews ran over Ryan.
But they also show body damage in the front corner, in front of the front tire, which Meuleman, now in his 20s, insists supports the claim that Andrews ran over him.
Last year, a patient care report by Ambulance Victoria paramedics at the scene emerged that said Mr Meuleman was “hit” by the car traveling at “40 to 60km/h”.
The Andrews, however, said they had come to a complete stop and had barely accelerated and turned right when the incident occurred.
Police did not breathalyze anyone at the scene and never interviewed Ryan about the crash after he was initially too sick to talk and then never followed up with him.
Mrs Andrews said she was driving the van at the time of the crash, but the Prime Minister then drove her away from the scene to take his distraught children to the family’s nearby rental home.
The police summary of their investigation, also just released, reveals that they concluded the damage from the crash matched Andrews’ account and said they would take no further action.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing on the part of Mr Andrews or his wife.