Loreto College Ballarat teacher shares nightmares of horror bus crash

A Ballarat teacher involved in a horror Pentland Hills bus crash has broken down in court, saying he still has nightmares about “dead” children and hears their screaming.

Loreto College students and staff were aboard the coach when it was ploughed into by a truck on the Western Highway at Pentland Hills. Picture: Brendan Beckett

A teacher involved in a horror bus crash has broken down in court as he described recurring nightmares of his students screaming for help from the wreckage.

Loreto College Ballarat teacher Scott Antonio was among dozens of students and staff aboard a coach when it was ploughed into by a truck causing the vehicle to roll down an embankment on the Western Highway at Pentland Hills.

Asked about his psychological injuries following the crash, Mr Antonio became emotional as he told the Melbourne Magistrates Court on Tuesday the crash would replay in his head in flashbacks and nightmares.

“I constantly hear the voices of ‘Mr Antonio, Mr Antonio, (two classmates) are missing, they’re not on the bus, we can’t find them at all’,” he said.

“What I see is they’re dead.”

Appearing via video link, Mr Antonio uncontrollably sobbed before the hearing was stood down and he was excused from giving further evidence.

Dozens of Loreto College students and teachers were on the Melbourne-bound bus when the tragedy unfolded. Picture: Brendan Beckett

Seated in the court’s front row, truck driver Brett Russell — who is facing 80 charges over the carnage — wiped back tears and was comforted by his lawyers before briefly leaving the courtroom after the teacher’s evidence.

Mr Russell, 61, was ordered to stand trial on Tuesday following a two-day committal proceeding to test the evidence against him, with his lawyer saying he may enter a plea of guilty if there was an “appropriate indictment”.

The hearing — which was set down for five days — heard Mr Russell was contesting the severity of several of the passengers’ injuries, with a number of treating physicians called to give evidence.

Psychologist Gabrielle French previously told the court one of the students she treated described suffering episodes of disassociation, flashbacks and recurring nightmares involving buses every time she “shut (her) eyes”.

Court documents reveal Mr Russell knew his B-double’s brakes were not working at the time of the September 2022 crash — which he reported to his boss — but he decided to drive anyway.

Truck driver Brett Russell is facing 80 charges over the carnage. Picture: Nicki Connolly

He told police the truck’s brakes ran out of air about 15km before the crash site but he knew he would be “all right” and just wanted to get to a rest stop at Melton.

The section of the highway where the collision occurred had been reduced to a 40km/h speed limit due to an earlier crash with traffic banked up.

“As he had ignored all of the warning signs that (he was) driving a vehicle that was unsafe, he was then heading down hill with no ability to slow the vehicle,” a police summary states.

The truck then rear-ended the bus which forced it through a barrier before tumbling down a steep embankment about 3:16am on September 21, 2022.

Thirty five people were hurt in the crash including 25 students and 10 adults, with injuries ranging from minor bruising to a near total foot amputation.

The students were on their way to Melbourne Airport for a trip to a NASA space camp in the United States.

Mr Russell, who pleaded not guilty, had his bail extended on the condition he not leave Victoria or Australia and not drive a motor vehicle.

The court heard he had already surrendered his passport.

He will appear in the County Court on April 8 for a preliminary hearing.