Department of Transport agrees to front up repair costs on vehicles damaged in Princes Fwy traffic chaos

Victoria’s Department of Transport is expected to cover repair bills for the vehicles damaged in an incident that caused traffic chaos on the Princes Freeway earlier this week. 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. 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. 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.