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A young man who was left paraplegic after crashing his dirt bike near Bendigo has had his appeal to secure compensation quashed at a state tribunal.
Jake Nunn was 18-years-old when he was thrown from his bike in June 2014 after hitting a concealed tree trunk while riding with friends on a property in Axe Creek.
He was airlifted to The Alfred Hospital where he underwent major spinal surgery to stablise his shattered spine.
Mr Nunn was left a T4 complete paraplegic, meaning he has no movement or feeling from his chest down.
Following the accident Mr Nunn sought compensation from the Transport Accident Commission which is obliged to provide it to people injured as a result of transport accidents in Victoria.
However TAC denied Mr Nunn’s claim on the basis he was riding an unregistered motorcycle on ‘private land’.
Mr Nunn appealed that decision at the Victoria Civil and Administrative Tribunal arguing the area in which the crash occurred was a subset of the rural property which had been used for motorcycle riding for many years.
Mr Nunn was a friend of the family who owned the property and was riding with the grandson of the landowner that day.
At the time, Mr Nunn’s friend had the property owner’s permission to invite his friends to go motorcycle riding, spotlight shooting and to attend bonfires on the subset of the property, continuing a family tradition.
This week VCAT senior member Ian Proctor upheld TAC’s decision, finding the land was private and so the government body was not obliged to pay compensation to the crash victim.
“I have decided that the property is private land because it is not a highway and members of the public may not enter or may not remain on it without permission,” Mr Proctor said.
“It follows that I affirm TAC’s decision.”