A group of students were heading to Melbourne Airport for a space camp in the US when their bus and a truck crashed on the Western Highway at Bacchus Marsh about 3.15am on Wednesday
A teenage girl has been seriously injured and five students were cut from the wreckage of a “nightmare” crash north of Melbourne in which a truck collided with a bus. Students from Loreto College in Ballarat were on the way to Melbourne Airport for a space camp in the United States when the bus rolled on the Western Highway at Bacchus Marsh about 3.
15am on Wednesday. Thirty-three people, including 27 schoolgirls, have been taken to hospital after a school bus collided with a truck north-west of Melbourne.Paramedics treated more than 30 people at the scene, with 27 female students, four adults and the bus driver taken to hospital. The teen was airlifted to hospital in a serious but stabled condition with serious lower body injuries. Victoria Police Detective Inspector Roger Schranz said road workers were dealing with an earlier crash when the bus crash happened.“It must have been horrific for the students, but just as horrific for their parents,” he said.Nine News Schranz said the crash scene was “quite chaotic,” with people getting out of the bus, witnesses and bumper-to-bumper traffic. He said the speed limit had been lowered to 40km/h on the stretch of road after an earlier crash and road workers were dealing with that incident when the second crash occurred.“The truck has come around the corner and headed down towards the hill, it’s seen the speed reduction [from the earlier crash] and the banked up traffic and collided with the bus, forcing the bus off the left-hand side of the freeway down the cliff,” Schranz said.The badly damaged truck and bus involved in the crash with a bus at Ballarat.Schranz said it was “quite miraculous” that everyone was able to make it out of the wreckage. Road crews from the Bacchus Marsh and Melton State Emergency Services were called to the scene, along with the Country Fire Authority to assist with the rescue. “Our crews worked with other emergency services on scene to remove the remaining five students trapped inside the bus and triage the large number of patients and extricate them up a steep embankment,” the SES said.A family member of one of the students said the girls were on their way to the airport to fly to the United States for a space camp.The woman said her daughter had called to say her granddaughter was alright. Ambulance Victoria said paramedics took 33 people to six different hospitals including the Royal Children’s Hospital, the Alfred Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, the Royal Melbourne Hospital and Ballarat Base Hospital.A code brown helps create capacity to maintain emergency services and the code status will continue to be reviewed. “Grampians Health can confirm that one Loreto staff member and 15 students were transferred to the Ballarat Base Hospital for treatment and observation following the accident, and all are in a stable condition,” the service said.The school has been contacted for comment.