Twenty seven high school students and their teachers on their way to space camp in America have been injured in a horrific bus crash west of Melbourne. 7NEWS
Two girls were airlifted to the Royal Children’s Hospital with serious injuries, while the male truck driver was driven to the Royal Melbourne hospital with serious injuries.
It is understood the bus was travelling to Melbourne airport, with the students and teachers due to fly to America to attend a NASA space camp.Detective Inspector Roger Schranz said before the bus crash occurred, there had been another collision involving a heavy vehicle on the same freeway earlier on Wednesday morning.
Schranz said he understood the speed limit on the freeway was normally 110km/h, and that the speed reduction signs initially read 80km, decreasing to 40km closer to the scene of the first incident.“The front cabin , you can barely get into it,” he said. The impact of the crash trapped the 60-year-old truck driver, a subcontractor who has been safely driving road trains for more than 30 years, in the cab before he was pulled from the wreckage and taken to hospital for surgery.
The Little’s Coaches owner also personally took 11 students and some parents to Ballarat Base Hospital in a separate bus following the crash.Trevor Oliver works for a towing company and was attending to the first incident about 800m up the road when he heard three loud crashes.“Instantly your heart sinks, but then to get there and find students, another world,” he said.