Week 8#
Law, liability and insurance after a strike#
“No One’s At Fault” Doesn’t Mean “No One Pays”#
Four different questions#
- who’s at fault?
- what does insurance cover?
- who’s contractually liable?
- what does it actually cost?
Casual conversation collapses these into one. They’re answered by four different documents.
Two separate schemes#
| Aspect | Property damage | Personal injury |
|---|---|---|
| Cover | Comprehensive motor | CTP scheme |
| Animal strike | Depends on the policy’s own clauses | Varies by state |
| Doesn’t cover | — | Vehicle damage |
Two claims, two policies, two rulebooks — even from one strike.
Read the clause, not the headline#
cl. 4.2 (Animal Strike) — direct collision with an animal.
cl. 4.1 (Single Vehicle Accident) — swerved, lost control, no impact.
cl. 4.3 (Claim Classification) — for a cl. 4.2 loss, not-at-fault + $500 excess, unless the driver failed to take reasonable care.
Cl. 4.2 decides which cover applies. Cl. 4.3 decides fault and excess. Reading only cl. 4.2 answers neither.
(Fictional teaching contract excerpt — not a real insurer’s policy.)
Rental changes the document, not the physics#
A rental agreement is a separate damage-waiver document, not your own comprehensive policy wearing a costume.
Your personal policy often doesn’t extend to a car you don’t own at all.
cl. 9 (Damage Waiver) — waiver applies, $2,750 excess, unless reckless/negligent driving, off-schedule roads, or breach of terms.
(Fictional teaching rental agreement excerpt.) Swerving to avoid an animal isn’t automatically “reckless or negligent” — that’s the assessor’s call from the specifics, not the clause’s.
The actual-knowledge standard (NSW)#
Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW) s45: a roads authority isn’t liable for not doing road work unless it had actual knowledge of the particular risk.
General “kangaroos are around here” ≠ actual knowledge of this stretch.
Three cases#
A — own vehicle, direct strike → cl. 4.2 (which cover) + cl. 4.3 (fault
- excess) read together → not-at-fault, $500 excess on these facts.
B — rental vehicle, swerved and crashed → rental cl. 9 damage waiver, not a personal policy; waiver likely applies, subject to its excess.
C — “the authority must have known” → no record of particular knowledge of this stretch. Illustrative reasoning, not legal advice.
Claims data ≠ true incidence#
An insurer’s claims record is who chose to claim — not a census of every strike.
Same exposure-adjustment problem as Week 3’s ranger and police records, wearing an insurance hat this time.
Today’s date#
Assignment 1 — 40%, due today, 12:00 → /assessments/assignment-1/
Nothing in this week adds to that. It’s just true.
Next week#
Week 8 was about who pays afterward. Week 9 is about the minutes during and right after — what a driver actually does, independent of who ends up footing the bill.