Tuesday 15 November 2022 04:08 AM Dan and Catherine Andrews car crash with Ryan Meuleman in Blairgowrie ... trends now
A former Crown prosecutor has called for a fresh investigation into the collision between a car occupied by the Victorian Premier Dan Andrews and 15-year-old cyclist Ryan Meuleman that left the teenager fighting for his life.
James Bowen, former Victorian Counsel for the Queen, said recently released evidence suggested Daniel and Catherine Andrews' account of the accident might defy the 'laws of physics'.
He also believes the investigation by Victoria Police was such a 'scandal' the case must be investigated by another force.
The accident, which occurred on Victoria's Mornington Peninsula in January 2013, has sensationally resurfaced to dog Mr Andrews as he seeks a third term for his Labor government on November 26.
Victorian Premier Dan Andrews (right) and his wife Catherine (left) were involved in a serious car crash in 2013 that left a 15-year-old cyclist critically injured
Mr Meuleman, who is now 24, launched a grenade into Mr Andrews' election chances when he told the Herald Sun his memory of the accident differed sharply from the accounts of the Premier and his wife.
Mr Meuleman also said a lawyer from Labor-linked law firm Slater & Gordon told him he needed to 'keep quiet' about the accident or he would not receive $80,000 in compensation from the Transport Accident Commission when he turned 18.
Under pressure from lawyers for the Mueleman family, police on Sunday released previously unseen photos taken at the accident which Mr Bowen says 'contradict the account of the collision' by Mr Andrews.
Mr Andrews said all queries about the accident should be directed to police.
Both the Premier and Victoria Police have refused to answer further questions put to them by Daily Mail Australia about the case.
Ryan Meuleman was left on the road screaming in agony after the collision and had to airlifted to a Melbourne hospital where doctors kept him alive with continuous blood transfusions and were forced to remove 90 per cent of this spleen
THE CRASH
Mr Meuleman told the Herald Sun he remembered cycling slowly across Ridley Street, near the town of Blairgowie, about 1pm on 7 January, 2013 when a car came 'speeding' around the corner 'out of nowhere' and struck him.
The accident left Mr Meuleman screaming in agony with a punctured lung, broken ribs, and internal bleeding.
He was airlifted to a hospital in Melbourne and doctors had to pump litres of blood and marrow into him because of a ruptured spleen.
Surgeons were eventually forced to remove 90 per cent of the injured organ.
Mr Meuleman, who is now 24, has come forward almost 10 years later to dispute the Premier's account of what happened
ANDREWS' DIFFERING ACCOUNT OF THE CRASH
Mr Andrews and his wife Catherine were inside their taxpayer-funded Ford Territory that collided with Mr Meuleman.
Mr Andrews insists Mr Meuleman T-boned the car, which was provided to Mr Andrews because of his role as Opposition leader at the time.
'The cyclist was travelling at speed and hit our car at a perfect right angle very heavily,' Mr Andrews told police in his official statement.
'I want to make it clear - the cyclist hit our vehicle.'
The first witness to the scene was Jane Crittenden, who said she almost drove into the back of the Andrews car.
It is not known whether police took a witness statement from Ms Crittenden.
The new pictures just released - grainy photocopies of the police originals - show the SUV's windscreen smashed from a heavy impact on the driver's side
New police pictures have been revealed under the Freedom of Information Act that show for the first time the damage to the Ford Territory
THE POLICE INVESTIGATION
Mr Bowen told Daily Mail Australia the crash was only attended by 'two very junior police', which he called a 'serious breach of normal police procedure for investigating serious traffic collisions'.
He said normal procedure would have been for the road to have been closed off and for police experts from the Accident Investigation Unit to investigate, none of which happened.
The two officers attending the crash also failed to breath test Catherine Andrews, who testified she was driving, with Mr Andrews in the passenger seat and the couple's three young children in the back.
The police pictures also show damage to the front corner bodywork ahead of the front tyre which the Meulemans insist supports their claim the care Ms Andrews drove into Ryan, now 24
BREATH TEST FAILURE AND 'APOLOGY'
The failure to breath test led to an investigation of the case by Victoria's anti-corruption watchdog in 2017 after police continually refused FOI requests by the media and the Meuleman family to release the full case files.
After the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) cleared the police actions the then Victorian police commissioner Graham Ashton blamed the missed breath test on miscommunication.
'It was a busy scene, and in that busyness one thought the other had done [the breath test],' Mr Ashton said.
'There wasn't any suggestion they had deliberately done anything improper.'
Mr Andrews said one of the officers even apologised for not doing the breath test.
'She (the officer) said, "I'm really sorry that we didn't breath-test you. We should have",' he said.
Retired Victorian Crown prosecutor James Bowen (pictured) says the investigation of the crash by Victorian police is a 'scandal'
ANDREWS LEAVES THE SCENE WITH WIFE AND CHILDREN
As Mr Meuleman was still lying on the ground screaming, Mr Andrews was allowed to drive his car, with its heavily cracked windscreen, to the family's nearby holiday house to drop off his traumatised children and wife.
Mr Bowen said that should never have happened.
'The recently disclosed police photographs now show that driving the Ford Territory away from the collision scene with badly shattered windscreen may have been an offence against
