A triple-zero call former Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews made after he and his wife collided with a cyclist has finally been revealed.
Mr Andrews was state opposition leader when the SUV he, his wife and their three children were travelling in collided with teenage cyclist Ryan Meuleman near Blairgowrie, on Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula, on January 7, 2013.
Mr Andrews has always maintained his wife, who was driving, came to a complete stop when a now-adult Mr Meuleman T-boned their Ford Territory.
In the leaked triple-zero call, obtained by The Herald Sun, Mr Andrews is heard telling the operator: ‘We hit him’.
‘We’ve turned right into Ridley Street and a kid’s come flying through on the bike path and we’ve hit him,’ he said.
‘He’s a teenager… I’d say he’d be… he’d be 15.’
The operator asked Mr Andrews how many ambulances were needed and if anybody else had dialled triple-zero regarding the crash.
‘Ahhh, I don’t think so…ahh, my wife, my wife might be,’ Mr Andrews said.
The triple-zero call has been released which reveals what happened after Daniel Andrews’ wife hit teenage cyclist Ryan Meuleman on January 7, 2013
The crash left Ryan Meuleman with serious injuries
The operator then confirmed that another call had been received from nearby 10 Ridley Street to which Mr Andrews replied: ‘Well, that’s the one.’
When emergency services arrived at the scene, Mrs Andrews was not breath tested.
Mr Andrews also told police in a statement less than a month after the crash ‘I want to make it clear – the cyclist hit our vehicle’.
But questions have been raised about the lead-up to the crash and the police handling of the situation after a report into the crash released in September this year showed that the investigation was ‘deeply flawed’.
Mr Andrews slammed what he called ‘appalling conspiracy theories’ after the review by former police assistant commissioner Dr Raymond Shuey, who was commissioned by Mr Meulemans’ lawyers.
Peter Meuleman, the father of Ryan Meuleman, said the report shed ‘a whole new light on what happened’ to his son.
Peter said Dr Shuey’s report ‘contravenes the police report of what happened and contravenes Daniel and Catherine Andrews’ version of events’.
‘We are hoping Victoria Police will reopen the case and re-investigate the case thoroughly,’ he earlier told Melbourne radio station 3AW.
Although Peter said a ‘lot of old wounds have mostly healed’ in the 13 years since the crash, the family felt at the time they ‘did not really get justice’.
Andrews’ Ford Territory after the crash with Ryan Meuleman
Ryan Meuleman spent 10 days in hospital and suffered serious injuries from the crash
Following the accident Mr Meuleman was airlifted to The Royal Children’s Hospital with life-threatening injuries, including a punctured lung, broken ribs, a ruptured spleen and internal bleeding.
He lost 90 per cent of his spleen, with his father saying while many of the other injuries had healed, the most ‘devastating and long-lasting effect’ of the crash has been the ‘mental trauma’.
Mr Andrews has always insisted his wife came to a ‘complete stop’ and ‘turned right from a stationary position’ moments before the teenager T-boned the Ford Territory.
In his 36-page assessment of the investigation Dr Shuey found the evidence did not back Mr and Ms Andrews’ account of what happened.
Police closed the case without pressing charges, and officers were later cleared of any wrongdoing by the corruption watchdog over failing to breath test the driver.
Mr Meuleman is suing law firm Slater & Gordon, which represented him after the crash, for allegedly failing to act in his best interest when it negotiated an $80,000 compensation settlement with the Transport Accident Commission.
Slater & Gordon denies the claims and will defend the proceedings. The trial is scheduled for May, 2025.
Daily Mail Australia does not suggest any wrongdoing by Mr or Mrs Andrews.
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