Hit while walking or riding? You’re covered by CTP.

Compulsory Third Party cover in New South Wales attaches to a vehicle rather than to a person. What the scheme asks is whether a motor vehicle was involved in the accident that hurt you. It does not ask whether you own a car, whether you hold a licence, or whether you were behind a windscreen at the time. Somebody knocked down on a pedestrian crossing, a rider taken out by a car door opening into the bike lane, a courier struck reversing out of a driveway and a child hit in a shopping centre car park have all been injured in a motor accident, and statutory benefits are the pathway that funds their treatment.

The boundary is the vehicle. A cyclist who washes out on a wet corner with no car anywhere near, or a walker who trips on a broken kerb, is dealing with something outside this scheme. That is worth knowing, but it is not worth agonising over at home on day three with a shoulder you cannot lift. Describe what happened to us on the phone and we will tell you which pathway you are in before you come through the door.

Fault is the second thing people misjudge. For the first year the scheme does not sort people by blame. Treatment and care are funded, and weekly payments are available where you cannot earn, for 52 weeks even for a person who was wholly or mostly at fault. Mostly at fault has a technical meaning: contributory negligence greater than 61%, a finding the insurer has to make and justify. Crossing against the light does not put you outside the scheme, and it is not a reason to sit at home untreated while you decide whether you deserve to ring.

Source: Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 ss 3.11 and 3.28. Checked September 2026.

Where the vehicle that hit you cannot be identified, or turns out to have no CTP policy behind it, the claim is directed to the Nominal Defendant. The Nominal Defendant Fund is managed by SIRA, the state insurance regulator, and it exists precisely so that a person left on the road by a driver who kept going is not left without cover too. The same lodgement clocks apply, including the 28-day rule for back-dated weekly payments, so a hit-and-run is not a reason to slow down.

The obligation that surprises people is due inquiry and search. The claimant carries the responsibility for making proper efforts to identify the vehicle before the Nominal Defendant takes the claim on. In practice that means work you should start in the first few days, because the evidence decays fast. Report to police and keep the event number. Knock on the shops, service stations and homes along that stretch of road and ask about cameras before the footage is overwritten, which on many systems happens inside a week or two. Take the phone number of anyone who stopped, note any partial registration or a description of the vehicle while it is fresh, and check whether a council or transport camera covers the intersection. Keep a simple written log of each inquiry with the date you made it. That log is the evidence of your search.

We are a clinic and not a law firm, so where a question is genuinely legal rather than clinical we can put you in touch with one of our partner firms. On the treatment side, none of this needs to be resolved before you are examined. Get seen, get the injury recorded properly, and let the identification work run in parallel.

Source: SIRA, Nominal Defendant; Motor Accident Injuries Act 2017 s 6.13. Checked September 2026.

Call (02) 7238 7379 or use the car accident booking page. Bring the date of the accident, the police event number if you have one, the registration of the vehicle if you got it, and any claim or reference number an insurer has already given you. If you are missing all of those, come anyway. SIRA runs a free helpline, CTP Assist, on 1300 656 919, and it can help you find the right insurer while your treatment is already under way.

You choose who treats you. Where a claimant expresses a preference for a particular provider, the Guidelines require the insurer to facilitate the referral subject to that provider being suitable, and to give written reasons if it declines. You are not required to accept whichever name an insurer puts in front of you, and saying so plainly is not being difficult.

The honest caveat, because it is your money. If an insurer denies liability or declines a treatment request, SIRA is clear that the accounts become the patient’s personal responsibility. We confirm approval before booking a block of treatment and we tell you where things stand rather than assuming you have been told. If the accident happened while you were working, walking or riding as part of your job, there may be a second claim as well, and our page on work-related car accidents sets that out.

Source: SIRA, Motor Accident Guidelines 4.78–4.79 and 4.104; SIRA, Fees paid for motor crash health services. Checked September 2026.