Peter Meuleman determined to uncover the truth about the crash that almost killed his son

Eleven years on from a near-fatal crash involving Daniel Andrews and Cath Andrews, cyclist Ryan Meuleman’s family still don’t have clarity on why Victoria Police failed so comprehensively.

It’s a David and Goliath battle in more ways than one.

On one side we have the powerful former Victorian premier Daniel Andrews – last week awarded the nation’s top honour and represented by a partner at one of the country’s most prestigious law firms – and on the other is a working-class family whose world was turned upside down in 2013 when the Andrews family’s SUV struck their teenage son.

Ryan Meuleman was lucky to survive the near-fatal accident on the Mornington Peninsula but to this day the family do not have clarity on precisely what happened and why Victoria Police failed so comprehensively to follow standard operating procedures, including securing the vehicle at the scene for forensic examination and conducting a mandatory breath test.

Ryan Meuleman in hospital after the near-fatal crash in 2013.

Andrews has claimed that Ryan “T-boned the car” and back in 2017 he said both he and wife Catherine, who was behind the wheel, had no issue with any documents concerning the case being released.

“I want to make it abundantly clear I have no objection, I have no problem, no concern, with documents being released,” he said.

But now he is fighting a Supreme Court order to provide his mobile phone records from that fateful day.

On Tuesday Ryan’s father Peter Meuleman told me he was determined to uncover the truth. “We are hoping to get justice for Ryan, it has been such a long road for us. So we would really like to get closure on the case, if we can get some honesty, transparency and justice for him,” he said on The Rita Panahi Show on Sky News.

Daniel Andrews is fighting a Supreme Court order to provide his mobile phone records. Picture: David Geraghty

But justice ain’t cheap.

The Meuleman family have set up a GoFundMe page to help cover legal expenses in their civil case.

“This is a really expensive legal exercise, we are a humble family from humble means and we want to fight this case, we want to get justice for Ryan,” Mr Meuleman said.

“I’m sure the Andrews camp can outspend us … they think once they’ve outspent us that we simply just go away.”

Peter Meuleman and his son Ryan are crowd-funding their legal expenses. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

He called on Andrews to comply with the court order and rejected the notion that it was a fishing expedition.

“If you’ve got nothing to hide you’d be transparent about all of those records,” Mr Meuleman said.

“This is a legal case which is far from a fishing expedition.

“We just want clarity, closure and justice.”