Huge win for drivers caught in traffic chaos
Motorists faced hours of delays on the major route after a 200kg steel panel covering an expansion joint in the road became dislodged, causing several collisions on Wednesday morning.
One involved a truck rolling over just after 4am, with crews dispatched to clean up a massive diesel spill.
It has since been revealed the steel plate was not properly secured by road crews, leaving a large pit with the expansion joint uncovered in the dark of night. Poor road conditions on the Princes Fwy contributed to multiple crashes and a truck rollover, sparking significant delays for morning commuters. 7NEWS Credit: Supplied
It is understood the Department of Transport and Planning will compensate in full all drivers whose vehicles were damaged.
Affected drivers are being contacted by the department to assist with the compensation claims process.
'We apologise to everyone affected by the incident on the Princes Freeway,' the department said in a statement to NewsWire.
'The incident was caused by human error during routine maintenance works on the bridge over the Werribee River.'
While the department is not normally liable for the first $1640 worth of damages caused by road conditions, an exception has been made for this incident, the Herald Sun reported.
The bungle left traffic backed up for kilometres, with all Melbourne-bound lanes closed for hours. A dislodged steel plate uncovering a road expansion joint were blamed for the incident. 7NEWS Credit: Supplied
Delays of up to three hours were experienced by commuters travelling between Geelong and the capital city, who were advised to take similarly congested detours or travel by train.
Aerial footage showed traffic backed up along the road in droves as drivers travelled into the city.
At the time a police spokesperson said the issues were caused by the problems with the road works.
'It is understood issues with the road contributed to the collisions, which occurred about 4.20am,' the spokesperson said.
No one was injured in the chaos, and urgent repairs were undertaken to get the road operational as soon as possible.
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Roadblocks remain for Aussie EV drivers despite sales rising as BYD battles Tesla for dominance
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Mr Maynard is instead calling for the federal government to scrap tax breaks for utes. "That's an exemption that has been afforded to those vehicles since 1986 and costs taxpayers millions of dollars," he said. "It makes far more sense to put those subsidies towards vehicles that will create cleaner air, and also help our health and also put vehicles in the hands of customers that are cheaper to get into and cheaper to own." Reduced US government subsidies have already knocked Tesla's sales. But back at the Melbourne EV show, there was no official Tesla stall to guard against the growing threat to its market dominance in Australia. Instead, a diehard group of Tesla owners was happy to represent the company for free. "We are just a group of people who love our cars," Ross Hetherington, a long-time Tesla driver, said. Mr Hetherington was quick to defend the brand's controversial CEO, too. "I drive the car for the car. I mean, Elon Musk owns 12.5 per cent of Tesla. He's not… he… Tesla employs 150,000 people globally. He's one man." Asked if he would ever return to a petrol vehicle? "There is no way," he said.
