By LACHLAN MOORHEAD
THE family of a Berwick woman killed in a car accident in 2011 have made an impassioned plea to the Victorian Attorney-General to open a new public inquiry into her death.
Delivering her findings in 2013, Coroner Heather Spooner said Melissa Ann Ryan, 32, was most likely distracted by a mobile phone conversation when her Volkswagen Golf was hit from behind by a B-double prime mover truck travelling eastbound on the Monash Freeway and crashed into the barrier near Huntingdale Road on Monday 31 January 2011.
Ms Spooner said there was no evidence to indicate Ms Ryan’s death was caused by her car losing power just before it was hit by a truck.
The 2013 finding came after the court received a letter of concern from Ms Ryan’s family in July 2011 which suggested her vehicle had inexplicably slowed down and that a plausible explanation was a vehicle malfunction.
The coronial investigation into Ms Ryan’s death led to a host of Volkswagen drivers claiming they had experienced losing power in their cars, after which the car manufacturer recalled more than 25,000 vehicles across Victoria.
In the wake of Volkswagen’s recent admissions that millions of its cars worldwide were equipped with equipment to cheat air pollution tests, Ms Ryan’s family are now urging Victorian Attorney-General Martin Pakula to order the re-opening of the inquest.
They are citing reports of at least six other Volkswagen drivers who owned the identical model Ms Ryan drove – a 2008 petrol-fuelled GTI Golf manual – who spoke of deceleration problems.
Ms Spooner, now retired, and State Coroner Ian Gray have so far resisted the family’s calls to reopen the inquest.
In 2013 Ms Spooner accepted Volkswagen’s response that it had not received any reports of rapid deceleration in its manual cars.
Ivan Mumford, the driver of the truck which hit Ms Ryan’s Volkswagen, was advised in a police interview in March 2011 that he might be charged with careless driving but the charge was never pursued by Victoria Police.
In 2013 Ms Spooner said the evidence suggested Mr Mumford kept a sufficient distance between his truck and Ms Ryan’s car.
