A FORMER steel worker now a quadriplegic after a 47-tonne Dump truck ran over his car has been awarded almost $11m in damages.

The New South Wales Supreme Court today finalised the compensation claim by Alan Kendrick, and the money will be paid in equal share by BlueScope Steel and the trucking company Australian Steel Mill Services (ASMS).

The workplace accident occurred in July 2000 as Mr Kendrick, then a blast furnace operator, had just started his drive home from BlueScope’s Port Kembla site, near Wollongong.

The truck ran over Mr Kendrick’s car at night on a narrow stretch of internal road as they tried to pass each other head-on.

In his ruling late last month, Justice Clifton Hoeben found BlueScope Steel had failed to provide safe road conditions while ASMS failed to properly train its drivers.

Today, he finalised the payout, putting it at $16.4m but then deducting $5.7m for Mr Kendrick’s “contributory negligence”, leaving $10.7m.

Mr Kendrick did not appear in the court.