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Blake Hart was 22 when his life changed on Melbourne’s Western Freeway in September 2017. The promising apprentice roof tiler from Geelong had fought his way out of learning difficulties, found stable work, and was close to completing his trade.
Hart was a rear-seat passenger when the car he was travelling in slammed into the rear of a stationary bus at high speed.
The impact was catastrophic. He lost consciousness and awoke with fractures to his eye socket, cheekbone, jaw, nose, and a broken wrist from bracing for imp
act. He could barely speak or eat and spent his days under sedation. He spent weeks at home recovering and only when the pain from other injuries receded did he realise his left knee was also seriously deficient.
Determined to return to normality, Hart went back to his roof tiling work in November 2017, far too early. Though officially cleared only for light duties, he was again carrying tiles, climbing ladders and kneeling on steep roofs. His knee was “quite sore” and sometimes locked.
He refused to see a doctor, insisting he would “come good.”
By February 2018, his pain had worsened. Then, lifting a tile elevator, his knee “gave way.” At Sunshine Hospital he was told it was a sprain. The pain never eased. His employer soon told him there was “no point” keeping him if he couldn’t work full weeks.
Hart left his apprenticeship “gutted.”
What followed was physical and psychological decline. Unemployed, he moved to northern Victoria to live with his partner’s family.
He became severely depressed and, in early 2019, was hospitalised after a suicide attempt. Psychiatric evidence confirmed major depressive disorder and PTSD, with nightmares, flashbacks and panic while driving. These symptoms later softened but never disappeared.
In June 2018 he underwent arthroscopy and meniscal debridement; in February 2019, a partial meniscectomy; and in September 2024, a third procedure.
Orthopaedist Russell Miller described a complex lateral meniscal tear with an associated cyst and chondral changes—injuries consistent with “significant trauma” and carrying a “significant risk” of degeneration.
Victoria’s Transport Accident Commission admitted liability for the accident in the ensuing injury compensation lawsuit but disputed Hart’s knee injury result from the collision, pointing to the absence of early attention for that particular issue.
Its orthopaedist, Michael Dooley, argued in Victoria’s Supreme Court that his knee injury was a result of long term degeneration and pre-dated the accident.
Justice Stephen O’Meara rejected that contention.
He considered Hart an “honest and compliant” witness who gave evidence “entirely without guile”. He also accepted evidence from his partner Maddison Rowland and her family that Hart had caried a limp, used a knee brace and had applied heat gel to his knee for pain relief on a daily basis.
Given his multiple fractures, heavy sedation and generalised pain, the lack of early knee documentation was – in the judge’s view – unsurprising.
The court preferred Dr Miller’s evidence as to causation, noting Hart had no prior symptoms and that the crash explained the only plausible basis of injury.
On damages, the court noted the former apprentice’s working life had become a series of short, painful attempts to take up manual labour. He stacked shelves in a bottle shop, drove forklifts, mixed concrete, loaded grain and welded plastic pipes.
Each job ended when his knee pain overwhelmed him. He persisted because “it’s the only thing I know how to do.”
By early 2025 he was working for a fencing contractor but was “quite sore and stiff” by day’s end.
Occupational physician Dominic Yong restricted him from repetitive squatting, climbing, pushing or lifting more than five kilograms and concluded he was permanently unfit for roof tiling. His residual earning capacity, the court found, was limited to light duties of uncertain durability.
The loss of physical hobbies such as skateboarding and BMX riding and the prospect of post-traumatic arthritis and eventual knee replacement all added to a significant reduction in enjoyment of life for which the court awarded $400,000 in damages.
The calculation of economic loss centred on a comparison by Vincent’s forensic accountant Michael Lee of Hart’s probable earnings as a qualified, potentially self-employed roof tiler with his likely earnings in low-skilled labouring roles—a difference exceeding $700,000 to retirement.
After adjustments for “vicissitudes” of life and a moderating “buffer,” Justice O’Meara awarded $400,000 for that loss of future earning capacity. Making up a total award of $1,025,000.
Hart v Frost-Cornwall [2025] VSC 330 O’Meara J, 12 June 2025
Categories: car accident