Melissa Pearce intends to mount a compensation case over the death of her partner at Oallen Ford bridge.

The Canberra woman told the Fairfax Media she had pushed for the coronial inquest into James Hughes’ death and funded legal representation.

In addition, she had left her job as a midwife due to the “emotional trauma and stress” endured as a result of Mr Hughes’ death and no longer had his income.

“It’s been hard,” she said of the inquest.

“All of it’s been hard – to keep hearing the details over again each time I sit in court. I relive everything that happened.”

Her solicitor, Matthew Bridger, said while Ms Pearce paid her own legal expenses, the council or professional associations had funded those of its employees.

Goulburn Mulwaree councillors decided to do so in a closed session last November.

The total legal bill from the inquest is unknown. Council general manager Warwick Bennett declined to comment after Deputy State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan handed down her findings.

Mr Bridger said Ms Pearce and the family had played a critical role in the inquest, which had revealed “certain answers.”

“Her Honour says that to its credit the council has introduced changes to ensure this never happens again, but we feel the legal representation has put pressure on them to do so,” he told the Fairfax Media. 

Mr Bridger said while the Deputy State Coroner also blamed systemic failings regarding the road’s condition, “a system was only as good as the person working it.”

“If that person fails, failures will happen and it requires a level of personal responsibility to ensure it doesn’t,” he said.

The inquest had heard that two written complaints about Oallen Ford Road’s condition and potholes in the days and weeks before Mr Hughes’ death went unanswered. Operations director Matt O’Rourke acknowledged he should have handled these better.

Ms Pearce believed the council had learnt from the experience.

“I hope all councils learn from it because if it happens anywhere else, it will be a tragedy,” she said.

“There needs to be an understanding of roles and responsibilities, not to be slack and blase because if you don’t do your job properly, someone could die,” she said.

“As a midwife I know every day that someone’s life depends on me...It is their responsibility to keep roads in a safe condition and they didn’t.”

Ms O’Sullivan officially found that Mr Hughes died as a result of “multiple injuries.” His ‘manner of death’ was being thrown from his motorbike after striking the pothole.

While finding numerous breakdowns in monitoring, reporting and repairing of the road, she also praised the council for systemic changes introduced since the accident.

“This is to their credit,” Ms O’Sullivan said.

“...Of note are the improvements to the customer request management system to ensure that all requests received from the public or from a council officer must be recorded within the system and directed to the appropriate service.”

In addition, this would capture more information such as the size and depth of a pothole, allowing work to be prioritised. Urgent or high priority jobs required a phone call to the responsible person.

Fifteen staff had completed a two-day course on bituminous surfacing rehabilitation. The operations division had also been restructured to ensure “small, routine construction and maintenance works were done well in-house.”

Higher grade duties had changed to cover staff on leave and the four depots had been consolidated into one to improve communication.

Council general manager Warwick Bennett and Mayor Bob Kirk again offered their condolences to Ms Pearce and the Hughes family.

Mr Bennett assured her that things had changed to ensure such an accident never happened again. He pledged to stay in touch with her.

Ms Pearce said she appreciated the apology but it didn’t change things.

She asked the council to clear weeds growing beneath the bridge where Mr Hughes died.

“I like to go there and sit, hear the birds sing and remember him,” she said.

This story first appeared in the Goulburn Post