A woman who rolled her car after avoiding a crash with another vehicle on the Kings Highway near Canberra has had her compensation claim against an insurance company validated after appealing in court.
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In August 2014, a driver of a car crossed onto the wrong side of the Kings Highway near Monga, southeast of Canberra, and collided with another vehicle.
About 30-60 minutes later, Crookwell woman Lisa Collins was driving northeast on the highway, about 1-2km from the site of the original crash.
After a long blind bend in the road, she was confronted with a line of stationary vehicles that were backed up from the original crash.
To avoid crashing into the back of the rear-most vehicle, Ms Collins veered up the embankment on the left side of the road, causing her vehicle to overturn and injuring herself.
By the time Ms Collins started legal proceedings in the NSW District Court, the driver who caused the original crash had died.
The claim was brought against the driver's compulsory third-party insurer, Insurance Australia, pursuant to a statutory scheme under NSW's Motor Accidents Compensation Act.
Last August, the district court ruled that the insurer was not liable for Ms Collins' injuries.
It found the insurance policy did not cover the claim because Ms Collins' injuries were not the result of a "dangerous situation caused by the driving of the vehicle" under a section of the Act.
The court also held that the at-fault driver did not owe a duty of care to Ms Collins because her accident was remote from the original accident.
She then appealed to the NSW Court of Appeal, which in a judgment on Wednesday found mostly in her favour.
The court found a dangerous situation did exist. Among its reasons were the queue not being visible to a driver until within 50-65m and the existence of the queue could not have been anticipated by a reasonable road user.
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The court also held that the insured driver owed and breached a duty of care to Ms Collins.
"A negligent driver who causes a collision on a regional highway creates a risk of injury to other road users who were not involved in the initial collision," the court said.
"The dangerousness of the situation was not a function of time or geography."
The appeal court's judgment states that Ms Collins' evidence during court proceedings was not "consistent with her statement to police made some six days after the accident when she had been discharged from Canberra Hospital and returned to her home in Crookwell".
Ms Collins was found to have been 20 per cent contributorily negligent.
The driver of the rear-most vehicle in the queue and the driver behind Ms Collins avoided a collision and injuries.
The Court of Appeal ruled that the District Court's judgment and orders must be set aside and for a judgment in the amount of $200,000 in favour of the plaintiff.
The insurer was also ordered to pay her legal costs.
