‘He’s shattered… the crash will hang over him for the rest of his life’

Jamie Gleeson’s father has broken his silence after the 49-year-old truck driver who crashed into a Melbourne school bus leaving 10 children with devastating injuries.

Pilar Grace

2 min read

May 18, 2023 - 3:30PM

A school bus and a truck have crashed in Exford (9NEWS)

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“He is pretty shattered. He’ll have [the crash] hanging over him for the rest of his life,” dad Robert Gleeson said after his son Jamie's truck collided with a school bus outside Exford Primary in Melbourne’s west on Tuesday.

An 18-year driving veteran, Jamie told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Wednesday he saw flashes of sunlight shining between trees as he drove by the Eynesbury primary school.

Suddenly the school bus in front of him braked, and although Jamie followed suit, it was too late.

He smashed into the back of the school bus. Ten children aged between five and 11 suffered unthinkable trauma: crushed limbs, spinal injuries and lacerations from glass shards.

The 49-year-old was charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury.

"There is nothing worse than when an accident happens and children are involve, and we just hope everyone comes out ok,” Robert told 7 News.

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Robert Gleeson has spoken in the aftermath of the crash that left a busload of children traumatically injured. Photo: 7News

Dad of truck driver charged in school bus crash speaks

Robert shared that when he picked his son up from the police station on Wednesday night, Jamie was not in a good state.

“He’s a pretty soft young fella and he cares a lot about people. I think he’ll just have to work through this like everyone else will.

“We just feel so sad for [the children] and we hope they recover and are able to go on with their lives like anyone else does.”

Jamie returned negative tests for alcohol and drugs. He was granted bail on Wednesday and will appear before the court again on October 18.

The school bus crash on Tuesday was catastrophic. Photo: 7News

Children in Exford Primary School bus crash suffer traumatic injuries

Prosecutor Mr Kerwin told the court police would need at least 16 weeks to to prepare for their case, to account for the “large number of children involved” and size of the collision.

Royal Children’s Hospital chief executive Bernadette McDonald gave a grim update to the media on Wednesday, outlining the severity of the injuries to some of the patients aged between five and 11 years.

Eighteen children were taken to hospital, seven with serious injuries, including full and partial amputations.

Seven of the children remained in hospital in a serious condition on Wednesday.

“We have a number of children with partial, one child has had a complete amputation,” she said.

“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 injuries, glass shard injuries and three patients are currently receiving spinal support and being monitored, carefully, in terms of spinal injuries.

“We still have two patients to go into theatre. The theatre teams did operate until the early hours of the morning, and we still have more theatre to go today.

“Some of these patients will require returns to theatres and multiple surgeries in the coming days and the coming weeks.

Ms McDonald said she was “very surprised” that there were no fatalities.

“I would never say we’re lucky,” she said.

“This is traumatic for every single person involved, the families, we have some very traumatised families and children in our hospital at the moment and we’re working extremely hard to provide that trauma support and care that they will need not just now in the coming weeks and months as well.”