A SERIES of collisions occurred last week on the Melba Highway, including a collision between a bus and two vehicles. Bus collision - Thursday The bus collision occurred near the corner of Two Hills Road in Glenburn at around 2.40pm on Thursday, September 9. Police advised that the bus collided with a white Toyota Yaris and a blue Toyota Corolla. Sadly, a 52 year old Ringwood woman driving the white Yaris died at the scene. The passenger, a 16 year old girl from the Maroondah area was taken to hospital with serious injuries. The driver of the blue Corolla, a 27 year old Wangaratta man, suffered only minor injuries. The bus is understood to have been a VLine service, the 1.15pm Mansfield to Southern Coss, operated by bus company Mees. Ambulance Victoria said that multiple occupants of the bus were injured, including a 17 year old boy from the Mansfield area who was airlifted to the Alfred Hospital with serious upper body injuries, a man in his 50s from the Windsor area was treated and transported to Box Hill Hospital by road ambulance in a serious condition, and a 16 year old boy from the Manningham area was treated and transported by road ambulance to Maroondah Hospital in a stable condition with upper body injuries. The driver of the bus, a 76 year old Eltham man, was not injured. Eighteen people were inside the bus when the collision occurred, including the bus driver. Paramedics assessed 21 patients at the scene. Sixteen of the patients did not require emergency treatment or transport. Glenburn CFA Brigade were the first of the emergency services on the scene. Brigade captain David Webb Ware became the CFA agency commander at the scene. He said, “Although tragic with one fatality, it could have been much, much worse. It’s a bit confronting to be told there might be 20 casualties en route, but the absolutely most invaluable thing, above everything else, was the fact that there were a couple of off-duty paramedics there. They were just passing by. “One of them was there and then another one turned up quickly, I turned up shortly thereafter. They were able to triage the patients and deal with the injured ones and that made the difference. “It can be very confronting dealing with first aid, but having trained people there, experienced people there, that made a huge difference,” he said. Although the off-duty paramedics didn’t have any equipment with them, they did have the skills and experience to deal with such an incident. “That solved a lot of issues. That was absolutely fantastic. They're just invaluable when that sort of thing happens. “The Emergency Management Team (EMT) was formed very quickly with the all the agency commanders, police, ambulance, SES and CFA. “The agency commanders from each agency had regular meetings, updates and things like that, and that worked extremely well. Everything was resolved relatively quickly because there was nobody trapped. The incident ran the way it should run. I was very happy with all that.” CFA units from Kinglake, Yea, Toolangi and Glenburn attended the incident, as well as police including the Major Collision Investigation Unit, paramedics, a specialist Air Ambulance Victoria helicopter (HEMS) crew, and multiple Mobile Intensive Care Ambulance (MICA) and Advanced Life Support (ALS) paramedic crews. The Kinglake brigade was tasked with closing the road at Break O’Day Road before the police were able to do it, as the road had to be closed very quickly. Police closed the road at the other end. The Melba Highway was later closed from Oliver Street, Yea, to Healesville-Kinglake Road, Castella. David added that the off-duty paramedics did what they could and then “The paramedics arrived very quickly and were able to set up all their gear.” “The big thing, when I got there, was that the bus had [people], some of them with minor injuries, other than the two [with significant injuries]. All of them were outside the bus, well away from the bus, but they were all out and walking.” He was uncertain whether any local people were on the bus at the time of the collision. “The other thing that was really good and well worthy of mentioning is that we had to get all the passengers away from the area so we opened the Glenburn Hall,” he said. “All the people were taken to the Glenburn Hall and were looked after until they were all carted away by bus or however they got carted away, I don't know. But they were taken to the hall and they were there for quite a while.” Local knowledge was a major factor in opening the hall, as just a couple of calls were needed to get the hall opened. “That's exactly what we did,” David said. “I advised in one of the EMT meetings in the discussions about where we can we take the people, and it was either the Roadhouse the CFA station or the hall, so we just made a few phone calls and we got the hall opened and so that's also a good news story because it worked.” VLine is understood to have provided another bus for the uninjured passengers to continue their journey. The Melba Highway re-opened at around 8am on the following morning. Fatal collision Castella - Monday ON Monday, September 21, emergency services attended a fatal collision in Castella. A truck and a car collided on the Melba Highway at about 4.50pm. The driver of the car died at the scene. The truck driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries and stopped at the scene. There will not be any changes laid regarding the collision. The exact circumstances surrounding the collision are yet to be determined and will be investigated. Glenburn - Wednesday A collision occurred at 10.22am on Wednesday, September 23, on the Melba Highway at the corner of Two Hills Road, the same location as the bus crash one day later. It’s understood that the collision was between a tractor and a vehicle. The driver of the vehicle was airlifted to hospital. Glenburn - Wednesday Police are appealing for witnesses after a Black Holden Commodore collided into a tree on the Melba Hwy Glenburn at Break O'Day Road at approximately 5.30pm on September 23. The police stated, “Investigators have received information suggesting the vehicle may have been driven erratically prior to the collision. Police are urging anyone who witnessed the vehicle, observed its manner of driving, or has relevant dashcam footage to come forward.” Anyone who witnessed the collisions, has CCTV/dashcam footage, or anyone with information is urged to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or submit an online confidential report at crimestoppersvic.com.au Our condolences to the family and friends of the people who passed away in these incidents, and sending best wishes to those who were injured, as well as to all of the first responders and witnesses. In last week’s edition, an article outlined the Victorian Auditor-General’s Office (VAGO) report on the condition of Victoria’s roads. It was found that 72.29 per cent of the Melba Highway was in poor or very poor condition. The same article provided information on the RACV list of regional Victoria roads of greatest concern. Of the three locations of most concern in the Nort Eastern region of Victoria, two were in Murrindindi Shire. In first place was the Melba Highway from Yea to Dixons Creek.
