A 12-year-old student, Milla Killeen, was killed at Stonehaven in a school bus crash last week. The bus rolled over just west of Geelong during a Wednesday morning school run, triggering a major emergency services response.
The bus was making a turn onto the Hamilton Highway when it hit a railing and rolled, Detective Senior Sergeant Paul Lineham said. Students on the bus ranged from primary to secondary school age. More than 20 children were taken to hospital, with one 16-year-old student being airlifted to hospital with serious injuries.
Milla was a Year 7 student attending Christian College Geelong's Highton campus and is remembered as a keen basketballer who was patient, kind and protective.
Ambulance Victoria area manager David Shearer said it has been a "very challenging day" for everyone involved — from first responders, to parents, students and the school community. "When you're presented with a crash of this sort of magnitude with children that's a very confronting scene. I take my hat off to all the first responders who attended today."
Christian College Geelong's executive principal, Mathilda Joubert, said "Our heartfelt thoughts and prayers are with the families impacted. We are supporting them through this incredibly difficult time."
"This is a profoundly distressing situation for the entire school community."
It is almost three years since we saw similar scenes at the Loreto College Ballarat bus crash at Bacchus Marsh. On 21 September 2022 a B-double collided with a school bus carrying 27 Loreto College students on their way to Melbourne Airport, bound for a NASA space camp, and pushed the bus down an embankment. At the time, police said the fact that all on board the bus were wearing seatbelts "saved lives".
In Victoria, it is compulsory to wear seatbelts on buses equipped with them, it has been observed that it was not as instinctual for young people as wearing seatbelts in cars.