The Victorian state election is on in earnest, now — and things are getting personal for premier Daniel Andrews. A 2013 crash involving the Andrews family and a teenage cyclist is back in the news. The cloud of suspicion over the incident, and Andrews’ and Vic Police’s handling of it, has resurged, as the now-adult victim announced that he had engaged a lawyer and is “considering his legal options”.
It is not known what kind of claim he hopes to bring, or against whom.
So, what happened, back then?
Andrews’ wife Catherine was driving a taxpayer-funded 4WD when the then 15-year-old cyclist was hit, and the then opposition leader was in the car, along with their three children […]
Ryan Meuleman was seriously injured and spent 11 days in hospital after the crash at Blairgowrie in the Mornington Peninsula in January 2013. According to a report in the Herald Sun on Thursday, day two of the state election campaign, Meuleman secured an $80,000 compensation payout from the Transport Accident Commission, paid after he turned 18, but the family was concerned about the process.
That “process” included police declining to administer a breath test to Andrews’ wife, Catherine. Or charging either Andrews for leaving the scene of an accident.
In their defence, the Andrews claimed that they left the scene to take their “traumatised” children to their nearby holiday home, before returning.
According to the Meuleman, “he clearly remembers the premier and his wife yelling at each other before then standing over him as he lay crumpled on the tarmac”.
Both sides give a different account of the accident.
In 2017 Daniel Andrews told reporters the young man on the bike ploughed into the side of the car.
The Age
Ryan Meuleman remembers it very differently.
He says he checked in both directions before slowly cycling across a road when he says the premier’s ‘speeding’ car ‘suddenly came out of nowhere’.
‘All of a sudden I was struck to my left-hand side by a car that seemed to come out of nowhere,’ he told the Herald Sun in an interview.
‘Although I did not see where the car had come from, it must have been travelling fast.
‘I know that it is about 20m from the stop sign. The car that struck me full-on did not apply brakes. There was no screeching of tyres. I did not see it coming.
‘It was a massive loud impact. I remember spinning in the air. I remember hitting the windscreen of the car.
No charges were laid at the time, and no one was breathalysed, in breach of standard operating procedures. The officers were ultimately given a warning.
Ryan Meuleman alleges that that was just the start of the “process”.
When police initially asked him for a statement, he said he was unable to speak because of the tube that had been in his throat during his 11 days in hospital, and he claims the police never returned.
However he signed a series of documents in the wake of the crash in 2013 in exchange for the $80,000 payout – but has been legally forbidden from seeing them.
He claims he was told he could sign the papers and get the money – but would then need to ‘keep quiet’ about it.
‘I basically had to keep my mouth shut,’ he said. ‘It sort of scared me into signing straight away and just agreeing with it. It’s something you don’t forget.’
His mother told the newspaper: ‘It was just, ‘If you do decide to speak, then you won’t get the money’.’
Daily Mail
Daniel Andrews refused to answer questions about the crash this week, despite being pressed heavily by reporters.
Elsewhere, there are signs that not all Victorians are ready to “Stand with Dan”.
It wasn’t all smiles and pleasant photo-ops on day three of the state election campaign.
During the press conference, the premier was heckled not once – but twice – by disgruntled residents of Caulfield, in Melbourne’s southeast.
“You’re a disgrace,” one of the men yelled across the dog park.
The Age
And, in signs that Labor insiders are not resting as easy as opinion polling might suggest, yet another government frontbencher has joined the mass exodus of senior MPs ahead of the election. Frontbencher Jaala Pulford joins James Merlino (deputy premier), Martin Foley (health), Lisa Neville (police) and Martin Pakula (industry support, tourism and sport), who announced their plans to jump ship, just a couple of months ago. Three other ministers announced their retirements in 2020 and 2021, while then-health minister Jenny Mikakos quit in 2020, claiming she was being scapegoated for the hotel quarantine disaster.
That doesn’t count the back and front benchers forced to quit or stand down over corruption scandals.
If Victoria only had a credible opposition, the election would surely be a lay-down misere.
