She said it was a parent’s “worst nightmare”.
“It must have been horrible for the students, but just as horrible for their parents,” he said.
Schranz said the crash scene was “pretty chaotic,” with people getting off the bus, witnesses and bumper-to-bumper traffic.
He said the speed limit had been reduced to 40km/h on the stretch of road where the crash occurred following an earlier crash and road workers were dealing with that incident when the second occurred accident
“The truck has reached the corner and gone down the hill, the reduction in speed has been seen [from the earlier crash] and the backed-up traffic and collided with the bus, forcing the bus off the left side of the freeway down the cliff,” Schranz said.
He said it was “pretty miraculous” that everyone was able to get out of the wreckage.
Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Jason Templar said first responders were faced with a “pretty horrific incident” and initial investigations suggested the lorry rear-ended the bus.
He also said first responders were “very impressed” by the students and staff who were removed from the bus.
“Early indications from the investigation are that they were all wearing seat belts, which has probably saved some deaths on the bus, which is great,” Templar said.
Tow truck driver Trevor Oliver, who was one of the first to arrive at the scene and helped pull people from the wreckage, told Nine News it appeared a girl’s leg had been partially amputated.
The badly damaged truck and bus that crashed in Bacchus Marsh. Credit: AAP
He said some of the girls were stuck hanging from their seats as the coach rested on its side, with teammates helping in the rescue.
“The girls who were healthy were helping the girls who weren’t healthy,” she said.
The school principal confirmed that the students were on their way to the airport to fly to the US to explore NASA facilities after the trip had already been delayed due to COVID-19 .
A relative of one of the students told Sydney radio 2GB the girls were on their way to “a trip of a lifetime”.
The grandmother said her daughter called her to say her granddaughter was okay.
Premier Daniel Andrews told parliament on Wednesday he had provided the school’s headmistress with a single main point of contact so she didn’t have to “navigate around the government”.
“We send our best wishes, our thoughts and our prayers to each and every parent, each and every student, staff member and of course their families. This will be an incredibly difficult time for them ” said Andrews.
Templar said an investigation at the scene of the crash was still ongoing and the Western Highway would likely remain closed between Ballan and Bacchus Marsh until Thursday morning.
Road crews from 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 at the scene to extricate the five remaining students trapped inside the bus and triage the large number of patients and extricate them down a steep embankment,” the SES said.
The driver of the truck, who has not yet spoken to police as he is receiving treatment in hospital, was also caught.
Wendouree MP Juliana Addison, a former Loreto student with a daughter at the school, said the bus crash was a “shocking event”.
“The Ballarat community will put our arms around our Loreto girls, teachers and their families and support them in whatever they need,” he said.
Ambulance Victoria said paramedics took 33 people to six different hospitals, including the Royal Children’s Hospital, the Alfred Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, Royal Melbourne Hospital and Ballarat Base Hospital.
Grampians Health chief executive Dale Fraser said the health service had issued a code brown at 7am to deal with the influx of patients. It ended at 2pm. A code brown helps build capacity to maintain emergency services.
The hospital said that as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, 13 of the 16 patients brought to the facility had been discharged, while three had been admitted and remained in stable condition.
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