A legislation labyrinth has a Vietnam veteran in Abermain seeing red.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Kevin Geoghegan spent two years scraping together his disability pension to buy his “pride and joy”, a 2003 Ford Courier in April last year.
He only owned the vehicle for three days when a passing car smashed into it when it was parked out the front of his house.
The vehicle was written off by the driver’s insurance company, GIO, with Mr Geoghegan subsequently having the damage repaired.
However, despite making the vehicle roadworthy, a Roads and Maritime stipulation that the vehicle must be owned by the same person for 28 days before being written off prevents him from re-registering the vehicle.
It’s a convoluted mass of red tape which has left the veteran dealing with what he describes as a “reoccurring nightmare”.
Mr Geoghegan said he wanted to cut through the ludicrous law and prevent other people experiencing what he has experienced.
“I’m as soldier, and a soldier’s job is to defend the weak. I know this is happening to me, I want to stop it happening to anyone else,” he said.
“I was looking forward to travelling around the country and catching up with mates, fellow veterans and that sort of thing.
“Now I don’t have a car at all, just because of 28 days.”
In a statement the RMS said the law was in place to help protect against vehicle theft and rebirthing.
The RMS echoed that if a vehicle is damaged, not safe or economical to repair, it is written off by the insurer using a formula set out under the Road Transport Act 2013.
Getting his vehicle off the written off vehicle is proving to be the difficult part for Mr Geoghegan, who said he’s suffering from the “one size fits all” approach.
“They should look at it at least on compassionate grounds. This is a veteran who has served his country,” said Mr Geoghegan’s neighbour and close friend, Lynda Logan.
“The amount of stress this has caused him is so unfair.”
“I just want there to be some common sense in all this,” Mr Geoghegan agreed.