One dead, two injured after two separate collisions involving trucks in western Victoria in one day

Four people were taken to hospital after a school bus travelling to a special developmental school rolled on a country road in Minyip in Victoria’s north-west.

Emergency crews worked for more than an hour to free the bus driver after the crash involving a B-double carrying hay bales on Thursday morning in the hamlet in the Wimmera region.

A bus driver was trapped for more than an hour after a school bus rolled in country Victoria.Credit: Nine

Three children and another adult were passengers on the bus at the time.

The bus driver was flown to a Melbourne hospital with serious injuries, while two children and the truck driver were taken to Horsham hospital.

The incident happened about 8.30am near the intersection of Stawell-Warracknabeal Road and Minyip-Dimboola Road in Minyip, about 51 kilometres north-east of Horsham.

The 22-seat school bus, travelling to Warracknabeal Special Developmental School, rolled onto its roof while the B-double hay trailer landed on its side.

Four people were taken to hospital.Credit: Nine

The school caters for students with disabilities aged 5-18 years from Warracknabeal and surrounding areas, according to its website.

The female bus driver was trapped for more than an hour before she was freed by 9.45am, the Country Fire Authority said. Police said she sustained serious injuries in the crash.

The bus was carrying three students, a staff member from the school and a driver at the time of the collision, a Department of Education spokesperson said on Thursday afternoon.

“Two of the students were transported to hospital for observation, and the third student is otherwise safe and well,” the spokesperson said.

“Additional wellbeing support is available to students and staff at Warracknabeal SDS, Warracknabeal Secondary College and Warracknabeal Primary School – and all families have been informed of the accident.

“Our thoughts also go to the drivers of the bus and truck.”

A specialist Ambulance Victoria helicopter crew and six advanced life support paramedic crews arrived at the crash site about 8.50am.

“Following emergency on-site care by our crews, two people have been transported by road ambulance to Horsham hospital and one person has been airlifted to The Alfred,” an Ambulance Victoria spokeswoman said.

The B-double was transporting hay bales.Credit: Nine

The bus driver was in a stable condition in hospital on Thursday afternoon.

Victoria Police said they would investigate the circumstances surrounding the crash. Paramedics and police are still at the scene.

The crash has forced the closure of parts of the Stawell-Warracknabeal Road and Minyip-Dimboola Road intersection.

Local councillor Corinne Heintze, who lives in Minyip, also works as a bus driver. She said she and her company had spent the day getting phone calls from people worried she was the injured driver.

She said the stretch of road on which the crash happened was well-known in the local community as a hotspot for incidents.

“It’s a terribly sad thing,” she said about the crash. “Thank goodness nobody got killed. What if those hay bales had fallen on top of the bus?”

“It is a bad corner - there have been a few trucks roll there and a fair few near-misses in recent years.”

Heintze is also a member of the Wimmera Southern Mallee Regional Transport Group. In 2020, the group identified Stawell-Warracknabeal Road as one of 30 roads across the Wimmera in need of major funding - $300 million - to improve their safety.

“We’ve just been banging our heads against the wall trying to get funding for that,” she said.

In a separate crash, at Mount Richmond, near the South Australian border, emergency services were called to reports of a collision involving a car and a truck on Portland-Nelson Road just before 5pm.

The car driver died at the scene, while the truck driver was uninjured.

It follows another fatal collision between a car and truck on Portland-Nelson Road on June 27.

Victoria’s road toll now stands at 177, up from 161 this time last year.

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