A university student was driving home to Victoria for semester break when a ute pulled out in front of her and braked suddenly. She collided with the back of it, and the people in the ute left the scene.
She was alone in regional South Australia, shaken by her first accident, with everything she’d packed up from university still in the car.
Her first call was to her mum. Her mum’s first call was to NTI Accident Assist.
NTI Accident Assist operates 24/7 from Service Centres in Newcastle, Melbourne and Adelaide, providing the first point of contact for many NTI claims.
“They know they can call us any time of the day or night, any day of the year,” says Brooke McKenzie, NTI’s Head of Service Centre.
“Driver repatriation is perhaps one of the lesser-known, but one of the most critical elements of what we do,” Brooke says. “It includes getting a driver home when they’ve had an accident or perhaps a medical episode or a breakdown, and they’re far from home.”
Brooke McKenzie (standing) talking to two colleagues at NTI's Service Centre in Newcastle, NSW
How does NTI’s Service Centre support drivers after an accident?
A transport insurance claim might start with the vehicle. But when a driver is stranded far from home, solving the problem can also mean arranging accommodation, flights or help from family.
“For NTI, getting the driver home safely after an accident is equally as important as sorting out the situation with the vehicle,” Brooke says.
Kathy Back, NTI Service Centre Consultant, is one of the people who takes those calls. “You don’t know what’s going to happen when you answer that call,” she says. “It could take you in multiple directions.”
In November 2025, a university student was driving from regional South Australia home to Victoria for the semester break, with her car loaded with everything she’d moved out of her student accommodation.
A ute pulled out in front of her and braked suddenly. She went into the back of it, and the people in the ute left the scene.
She rang her mother, who rang NTI Accident Assist. The car sat on the family business policy alongside its trucks and machinery, so her mother called the same number the family would use to make a truck accident insurance claim. Kathy took the call and saw it through to the end.
“I just genuinely felt for this young girl,” Kathy says. “She didn’t know what to do. She normally reached out to her dad.”
But her dad was away camping and couldn’t be reached. Her mum was frightened too, so Kathy’s first job was to reassure both of them that help was on the way.
Kathy Back taking the call from NTI's Service Centre in Newcastle, NSW
Finding another way
The obvious solution was a hire car. Whatever got her home had to carry everything she’d packed, too, and a hire car would do both.
But after calling multiple providers, the team hit a dead end. At her age, she was too young for the hire car companies they contacted, and the one-way interstate trip narrowed the options further. Regional hire companies often won’t do one-way trips, because they hold less stock than metro branches and getting the car back is difficult.
Even then, availability wasn’t the only consideration. The team also had to decide whether putting her back behind the wheel was the right thing to do.
“We felt that she was still quite shaken up after the initial accident, and that putting her in a car to drive from South Australia to Victoria wasn’t the best idea with our duty of care,” Kathy says.
“The team will rally around to find alternative solutions,” Brooke says. “We just don’t give up.”
With a hire car off the table, the team changed tack and focused on what she needed right then: somewhere safe to stay the night.
The team found her a hotel nearby, and NTI’s travel agency made the booking. “We could get the young girl off that side of the road and to a hotel where she would feel safe,” Kathy says.
When a truck is involved in an accident while carrying freight for a customer, the load needs recovering, too. In this case, the ‘freight’ was almost everything a student owned.
“We picked up very early on in the conversations with the daughter how important having her belongings with her was,” Kathy says.
The towing provider kept the vehicle secure overnight, and NTI arranged for her to visit the holding yard the next morning to collect everything.
Kathy Back (right) talking to a colleague at the NTI Service Centre in Newcastle, NSW
Safe, supported and finally home
Two days after she had originally planned to arrive, she made it home safely, with everything she’d packed from university.
From the customer’s point of view, the outcome was simple. Behind the scenes, it had taken persistence, coordination and a willingness to keep looking when the obvious answer didn’t work.
“For them, it’s seamless,” Brooke says. “Meanwhile, we’re the ducks in the background… very calm on the surface, while the flippers are motoring overtime under the water.”
For NTI, the job of getting someone home safely doesn’t necessarily end when the immediate arrangements are made.
“Our team genuinely cares about the outcome,” Brooke says. “Someone might have finished their shift four hours earlier and still circle back to make sure that customer made it home.”
A few days later, the team called the student’s mum to see how things had gone. She said that in a situation like this, you hope to deal with someone who shows empathy and genuinely helps. She said NTI had delivered exactly that.
“I think the mother was just relieved that we had someone at the end of the phone who really took the time and care to make sure her daughter was safe,” Brooke says. “And as a parent myself, that’s what I would hope for too.
“It’s honestly what I’m most proud of,” she says.