Two definitions decide whether the Act applies to an accident at all. Both were rewritten in 2021, and the change is recent enough that most published commentary, and the consolidated text most lawyers use, predate it.
The original definition
From 1974 the Act defined a “motor vehicle” as “a motor car, motor carriage, motor cycle, motor truck, motor omnibus, motor tractor or other vehicle propelled wholly or partly by a volatile spirit or by steam, gas, oil or electricity, or by means other than human or animal power”, including a trailer but excluding a vehicle used on a railway or tramway. The definition is about the means of propulsion, not the purpose of the vehicle, and the courts applied it to machines far from the family car. A forklift unloading a truck in a public area was a motor vehicle in Nidop v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust [1989] PGLawRp 70; [1988-89] PNGLR 635, and a back hoe operating on a public street was one in Terema v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust [1994] PGLawRp 599; [1994] PNGLR 41, where a woman lost a leg.
The 2021 amendment
The Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) (Amendment) Act 2021 (No 9 of 2021, certified 21 September 2021) replaced the definition. Paragraph (a) repeats the old words. Paragraph (b) adds:
“equipment and trucks used in mining, petroleum, logging and agricultural project sites including but not limited to long wall machines, shuttle cars, rock dusters, personnel vehicles, scoops, draglines, shovels, haul trucks, highway miners, blast-hole drills, dozers, graders, tractors, sprayers, field cultivators, shredders and cutters, seeders and planters, ploughs and balers”.
The same Act inserted a definition of “street”: a street, road, lane, thoroughfare, footpath, bridge or place open to the public or to which the public has access, whether on payment or otherwise — the existing definition of “public street” — but now including such a place “in a mining, petroleum or agricultural development site” and “in a private property estate”. The evident purpose was to bring the workforce and residents of resource projects and plantations within the compulsory scheme, so that a worker run down by a haul truck on a private mine road has the same claim against MVIL as a pedestrian on the Highlands Highway. The identical change was made to the Basic Protection Compensation Act by the companion amendment.
Does “street” matter after 2021?
Less than it did. Until 2021 the words “public street” appeared in section 54(1)(b) and (c), which allowed claims against MVIL for injuries caused by uninsured vehicles and unidentified vehicles “in a public street”. Section 2 of the 2021 Act repealed both paragraphs. What remains is section 54(1)(a): a claim in respect of “a motor vehicle insured under this Act”, which has never contained any location requirement. In Kumbe v Motor Vehicles Insurance Ltd [2005] PGNC 110; N2860 a schoolboy hit by an insured utility while playing touch rugby in a public park recovered K150,000; the vehicle being insured, it did not matter that a park is not a street. The new “street” definition is now most relevant to the offence of using an uninsured vehicle and to the Basic Protection Compensation Act. See does the accident have to happen on a public street.
The New Porgera exception, 2022
Eight months later the Motor Vehicles (Third Party) (New Porgera) (Amendment) Act 2022 inserted section 64A. For “New Porgera Operations” — defined by reference to the Porgera Project Commencement Agreement of 3 February 2022 between the State, Barrick (Niugini) Limited, Porgera (Jersey) Limited, Kumul Minerals Holdings Limited and Mineral Resources Enga Limited — the definitions of “motor vehicle” and “public street” have the meaning they had before the 2021 amendment. Mine-site equipment at Porgera is therefore outside the compulsory scheme, and injuries caused by it are governed by the ordinary law of negligence and whatever insurance the operator carries. The Act came into operation on a date fixed by gazettal notice. No other project has been given a similar exemption in the legislation on PacLII.
The 2021 amendment is not retrospective. An injury caused by mine or plantation equipment before 21 September 2021 falls under the old definition, and a claim in respect of an uninsured or unidentified vehicle on a public street before that date may still be made under the repealed paragraphs, subject to the limitation periods. An accident after that date involving an uninsured vehicle is a claim against the owner and driver personally, not against MVIL.
Other terms worth knowing
- “Registered” means registered under the traffic legislation, now the Road Traffic Act 2014.
- “Insured motor vehicle” means one in relation to which a third party cover exists “at all material times”.
- “Uninsured motor vehicle” means one that is not insured, but excludes a vehicle that is the property of the State or a government authority, and vehicles exempted under the Act.
- “Third-party insurance cover” is the cover issued by MVIL or its agent under the Act.
The glossary on this site carries entries for the terms that appear in the amending Acts on PacLII, with links to the provisions.
Sources
- Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) (Amendment) Act 2021 — ss 1 and 2
- Motor Vehicles (Third Party) (New Porgera) (Amendment) Act 2022 — new s 64A
- Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) (Basic Protection Compensation) (Amendment) Act 2021
- Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act (Chapter 295) — s 1 (definitions), s 54(1). Not on PacLII.
- Nidop v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust [1989] PGLawRp 70; [1988-89] PNGLR 635
- Terema v Motor Vehicles Insurance (PNG) Trust [1994] PGLawRp 599; [1994] PNGLR 41
- Kumbe v Motor Vehicles Insurance Ltd [2005] PGNC 110; N2860
Before relying on anything here, read the current text of the Motor Vehicles (Third Party Insurance) Act (Chapter 295) and check for later amendments. If a decision matters to you, get advice — start with the Office of the Public Solicitor, or find a firm in the law firms directory.