Exford Primary School in ‘hearts and prayers’ of Loreto College

Loreto College, whose own students were involved in a bus crash last year, has extended its “hearts and prayers” to those in a bus crash in Melbourne’s western suburbs on Tuesday.

Ballarat’s Loreto College has offered its sympathies to those involved in a primary school bus crash in Melbourne’s western suburbs which hospitalised more than a dozen children on Tuesday evening.

There were 45 children on the Exford Primary School bus when it collided with a tipper truck shortly before 4pm near Exford Rd in Eynesbury.

Of those children, 18 were taken to hospital and seven suffered serious injuries.

One underwent a “complete” amputation and another was brought to the ICU.

In September last year, dozens of students and staff from Loreto College Ballarat were rushed to hospital after a truck collided with their school bus on the Western Highway.

“We pray for all those recovering in hospital and at home and for their families, at what we know is a most difficult time,” the school said on social media.

“We keep in our thoughts all those first responders, police and medical staff and all those assisting the community today and in the days ahead.”

The Eynesbury school bus crash. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

A 49-year-old truck driver has been charged with four counts of dangerous driving causing serious injury over the Eynesbury crash.