Swansea Bridge crash 2017: Deb Moroney faces legal battle for funds as Roads and Maritime Services lodges statement of claim

Rain bucketing down. Her blue ford Falcon skidding uncontrollably towards the edge of the bridge. A moment of weightlessness before she smacked into the Swansea channel. Ice-cold sea water pouring in.

It's been five long years since she crashed through the rail on Swansea Bridge, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after she fell into depression, using alcohol to quieten the storm inside her.

Things had just started to take a turn for the better, when Ms Moroney received a statement of claim totalling $11,758.45 from Roads and Maritime Services.

"I was definitely on my way back," she said.

"It never helped the fact that I can't take a car through a car wash. When I hit the water I will scream, sometimes I have to pull over and have a moment as us girls do, have a bit of a cry.

"You just have to go through the moment."

The fact she survived at all was heralded a miracle, unclipping her seatbelt and having the forethought to open the window before she hit the water.

In a twist of sheer luck, she had told her then 12-year-old son Ethan to ride home from soccer practice with his dad - saving him from the horror that could have claimed both of their lives.

The family has spent a lot of time trying to heal, naturally they were shocked when they were served with legal paperwork on an otherwise unremarkable day around March.

"We're sole traders, we work day-to-day and it's just one of those things," Ms Moroney said.

"What are they wanting? Are they wanting me to pay $5 to $10 a fortnight, a day?

"I don't understand what they think they are going to get out of my family when we're not financially great anyway.

"I know that's not for them to know or anything like that, it's not personal to them, I'm just a docket on a piece of paper that hasn't paid their bill."

Knowing the struggles the family has been through, long-term friend Katrina Williams started a GoFundMe to help them raise funds to pay for the legal battle ahead.

She said they've already lost so much in the incident, and now they are pushing to finally have the bridge fixed with the same guard rail that's installed on the other side.

"It will happen again, Deb is lucky to be alive, the next person may not be so lucky," she said.

"It's gut-wrenching, they're going to go after her for damages and what damages were there?

"Let's be real it's just insane, those two pieces of what isn't even approved as pool fencing with Lake Macquarie City Council and they want to hit her up for that much? It's a ridiculous amount."

To even have Ms Moroney agree to the fundraiser was a battle itself, Ms Williams said, given the family isn't one to ask for help.

"Deb is a tough woman, she does not bang anything on," she said.

"I've known her for that long, she would break all of her fingers and still go to work, she's a tough cookie.

"For this to actually ... it broke her.

"Like everybody they're just battling to pay the mortgage and get through the week."

The goal is to raise $20,000 to help the family cover the cost of legal fees as they fight the claim.

If they can win it, Ms Williams said the money would go towards helping to fix the bridge - and not just replacing the panels that failed to stop the crash in the first place, by putting in the same guard rail that's on the southbound side and coming up with a solution for the road surface that turns glass-like in the rain.

"That's their main goal," she said.

"They want this bridge fixed, because at least it happened for a reason then, something came out of it."

It's not the first time a car has fallen victim to the bridge, in 2014 a vehicle narrowly avoided ending up in the channel after its wheels were left teetering over the egde.

John Gilbert was a councillor with Lake Macquarie City Council back in 2017, his son Caleb and his friend Lockie Rose were just about to go fishing at Swansea when they saw Ms Moroney's car floating in the water.

The pair ran onto the bridge and called Triple Zero, yelling out to Ms Moroney to swim towards the rocks by the RSL club.

Mr Gilbert said he couldn't believe the RMS was going after her for money.

"It's not even an approved surface for a road, the safety rail is insufficient, they have got a damned hide," he said.

"I remember at the time I was on council saying RMS needs to look at the surface of that bridge, it's not safe.

"This woman was lucky to live, it's absolutely preposterous that the RMS would pursue her for that, they've got an unsafe surface on the bridge and a non-compliant safety rail that will let vehicles through into a potentially deadly situation.

"That woman could have died."

At the time, a lot of locals approached Ms Moroney, begging her to push her story to have the bridge fixed.

"It was just the case back then that I wanted it all to go away, it was a bit hard to deal with and I guess that's where the post-traumatic stress comes in," she said.

"I wish I had of stood up for myself and other people in the community back then, been a bit stronger and gone no, you know what, you need to do something about the bridge - but I didn't have it back then.

"I think it's way past time that something was done with the bridge."

The RMS has been contacted for comment.

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