Man wins TAC payout 22 years after being hit by car

A TEEN hit by a car while riding his bike in a Niddrie street has won a compensation payment from the TAC more than two decades on.

TWENTY-two years after a shocking bicycle accident, sales manager Jason Hill has won a six-figure payout from the TAC.

He was a young teen when his life was literally turned upside down when a car ploughed into him on a suburban Niddrie street in May 1995.

Mr Hill, now 37 and a father of three, was riding his bike with a friend when a car hit him from the left as he passed through a roundabout at the intersection of Ryder St and Hotham Rd.

The then 15-year-old slid up the car’s windshield, onto its roof and then into a telephone pole where he blacked out, before waking up to find his right knee cap broken along with other minor injuries.

“I remember when the car was just metres away from me, I knew what was going to happen and just braced myself for impact. I think I was then out for 15 minutes,” Mr Hill told the Herald Sun.

Jason Hill around the time of the accident.

Jason Hill today. Picture: Sarah Matray

“But if I wasn’t wearing my helmet, I probably would have been dead.”

Last week lawyers from Slater and Gordon helped Mr Hill secure a payout for ongoing issues, including an eventual knee replacement and regular arthroscopic surgeries.

“This is going to help protect us as a family, especially when I have to go in for that knee replacement, which I’ll probably need in about 10 to 15 years,” Mr Hill said.

“I’m not someone who complains about much, but in a situation like this, and the serious impact it would have going forward in my life, I needed to ensure that I can look after my wife and kids.”

After the accident Mr Hill endured months of rehabilitation — including initially returning to school in a wheelchair — before realising he would never have full mobility of his right knee.

Jason was thrown up the car’s windshield, onto its roof and then into a telephone pole.

Years later the discomfort became worse as his injured knee’s remaining cartilage wore away, causing swelling and pain that has left him barely able to walk up and down stairs or bend down to pick up his young children.

“It was about four years ago that I really started to feel the pain and noticed the clicking in the knee — other people actually heard the clicking,” he said.

“When I started a new job in 2014 I had to go up and down stairs every day and every step I took, it felt like a knife was going into my kneecap.

“So I went to the doctor and she said I had the knee of a 65-year-old. I was 35 at the time.”

Mr Hill’s lawyer Marko Eric said his clients’ claim was initially denied by the TAC last year, due to the time that had elapsed.

Mr Eric took Mr Hill’s case to the County Court, which granted an extension of time because it believed the circumstances were “just and reasonable”.

Mr Eric said not all road victims were able to pursue legal claims after such a long period of time and encouraged those injured in road accidents to seek legal advice as early as possible.

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