Several children have been seriously injured resulting in partial and full amputations after a bus and a truck collided, causing the bus to roll onto its side in Eynesbury.
The bus was carrying up to 45 children at the intersection of Exford Road and Murphys Road about 3.40pm on Tuesday, May 16, police said.
Students from the nearby Exford Primary School were reportedly involved in the crash.
Royal Children’s Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald confirmed this morning that a code brown was activated at the hospital and seven patients between the ages of five and 11 were admitted with serious injuries following the incident.
“The children have suffered multiple and traumatic injuries including partial and complete amputations of arms, multiple crush-limb injuries, severe lacerations to head and body, head injuries, glass shard injuries, and three patients are currently receiving spinal support and being monitored carefully in terms of spinal injuries,” she said.
Ms McDonald said teams operated until the early hours of the morning and two more children are due to enter theatre today, as of this morning one child is still in the ICU, but is “likely to come out today”.
“Our teams, I want to acknowledge, responded beautifully last night … I couldn’t get people to go home last night. They were all wanting to stay and help in any way possible,” she said.
“I want to acknowledge the work of the ambulance paramedics who were on the scene very quickly and who transported those seriously ill children to us very quickly yesterday afternoon.”
All seven children are in a “serious condition”.
Parents were offered accommodation by the hospital and were reunited with their children “as quickly as possible” following their release from theatre.
Paramedics assessed dozens more people at the scene, where they remained for more than three hours on Tuesday.
The male driver of the bus sustained minor injuries in the incident, while police were also speaking with the male driver of the truck.
The Country Fire Authority earlier said about six children were trapped.
Major Collision Investigation unit detectives were deployed to the scene, with police urging anyone with information about the incident to come forward.
