Western Australia's coastline stretches for over 12,000 kilometers and Perth's metropolitan area is over 120 kilometers end to end, making it one of the longest cities in the world. Not surprisingly to travel around these area's requires many kilometers of roads and many motor vehicles. The Australian Bureau of Statistics reported that in 2018 Western Australian drivers traveled over 27,401 billion kilometers.
To move people and freight around Perth and Western Australia more and more commercial vehicles are being used. The Australian Bureau of Statistics has confirmed that in the last decade the use of road freight has increased, year on year, in all states across Australia. In recent years, Western Australian's have also enthusiastically embraced ride sharing services like Uber, Ola and Shofer. Traditional taxi's are also still regularly used by many Western Australian's and the Department of Transport has recently introduced the Transport (Road Passenger Services) Act 2018 in an effort to make the on demand transport industry safer, fairer and simpler for consumers to use.
Given that there are increasing numbers of commercial vehicles on Western Australian roads and that these vehicles are travelling comparatively long distances, it is not surprising that problems associated with road congestion and driver fatigue are increasing.
The West Australian Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety's regulations on operating commercial vehicles provide very clear requirements for what lengths of time workers are allowed to drive and how often they must take breaks. Notwithstanding our generally good road and motor vehicle regulations and standards, accidents involving commercial vehicles are commonplace.
Unfortunately there are a range of different situations where you could be injured by a commercial vehicle. These situations include personal injuries sustained where you were the driver of a car or other motor vehicle, a passenger, cyclist or pedestrian that was struck by a commercial vehicle. Another situation is where you are injured as passenger while traveling in a commercial vehicle. Here, you could have hired a taxi, Uber, Ola or Shofer vehicle or be part of a tour group on a bus or shuttle and that vehicle is involved in a crash and you are injured.
If you have been injured in a road accident involving a commercial vehicle you may be able to make a claim for personal injury compensation. In these cases a road accident personal injury compensation claim will need to be lodged with the Insurance Commission of Western Australia ("ICWA"). ICWA will investigate the circumstances of the claim and it will need to be found that the driver of the commercial vehicle was either totally or partially at fault for causing the accident. If ICWA admits liability on behalf of the negligent driver it will pay for the injured person's medical treatment and lump sum compensation. Once liability for the accident has been admitted ICWA will also be required to make a contribution to the claimant's legal bill.
Separovic Injury Lawyers have successfully settled hundreds of motor vehicle compensation claims where the personal injury has been caused by a commercial vehicle. We have earned a reputation for fighting hard so that our injured motor vehicle accident clients receive every dollar of compensation they are entitled to. Motor vehicle accident compensation claims involve strict timelines so please don't put your claim at risk and call us today.