Insurer Zurich reimburses Redland council for drunken mayor’s crashed Lexus
Redland ratepayers have been reimbursed for the crashed luxury Lexus hybrid car that Mayor Karen Williams crashed while drunk.
Redlands Coast
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Redland City Council’s insurance company has fully reimbursed them for the cost of the luxury Lexus hybrid car that a drunk mayor wrote off last year.
Redland council lawyer Andrew Ross said the council’s vehicle insurer, Zurich, claimed the vehicle and fully reimbursed the council for its insured value.
“Council is not directly involved with the insurer after they took possession of the car last year noting their standard policy approach is to recover any loss directly from the driver at fault,” Mr Ross said in an email to a ratepayer.
“Council has been fully refunded for loss associated with the incident including the insured vehicle value, insurance excess and road rail repairs.”
Insurer Zurich said: “Due to customer privacy and confidentiality, we can’t comment on individual cases.”
Ms Williams pleaded guilty to a high-range drink driving charge in August last year after she was found to have had a blood-alcohol content of 0.177 per cent.
She crashed her council-owned car into a road rail and tree after drinking wine at a staff party to celebrate the tabling of the city’s 2022-23 budget.
The crash occurred just minutes after she had held an online meeting with victims of juvenile crime and drink drivers.
Capalaba MP Don Brown called for greater transparency over whether the council’s insurance premiums had risen after the June drunken crash.
“The council was not at fault so we want to know has the mayor repaid the insurance company or will Zurich ‘gift’ that claim to the mayor?” Mr Brown said.
“If it is a gift, the mayor will have to include that amount on her register of interests for all to see,” he said.
The mayor was the only councillor out of 11 in the city to have the prestigious Lexus hybrid car, which can cost up to $80,000 depending on the year.
Redland council said Ms Williams had personally covered all costs relating to the incident.
At Redland council, there is a cap on the amount that councillors can spend on a motor vehicle and councillors have a selection of vehicle options.
Six of the city’s 11 councillors have opted for the standard Sante Fe SUV.
Councillors who do not take up the option of purchasing a ratepayer-funded vehicle are reimbursed through the Australian Taxation Office logbook method which is 74c per kilometre for council use.
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