A teenage girl was left seriously injured after a school bus which was carrying 27 female students crashed into a truck and rolled off the motorway near Melbourne.
The horrifying incident happened in the early hours of Wednesday morning at 3.15am in Bacchus Marsh just outside of the state capital.
The bus was carrying 27 female students from Loreto College Ballarat, who were en route to the airport for a school trip to NASA space camp at Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
Remarkably only one girl and the male driver of the truck were reported to be injured in the collision, with the teenager thought to be in a serious yet stable condition.
She was flown to the Royal Children's Hospital after the bus veered off the motorway in Bacchus Marsh and rolled down a 50 metre bank.
The harrowing images of the wreckage sees all the students and four accompanying adults' luggage scattered across the area. The other 26 schoolgirls, four adults and bus driver were taken to hospital for observation.
One grandmother of a child who was onboard the bus was reported by the Daily Mail as saying: "(My daughter) drove down to Bacchus Marsh. She was stuck in traffic. Her husband got out of the car and ran down to the bus to let her know that her daughter was fine, which was good news. And most of them are quite well I believe."
A spokeswoman for Loreto College Ballarat told Daily Mail Australia: "There are meetings going on at the minute with just the fall out from everything. Everyone is fine. We had injuries but there are no fatalities."
It is believed that the itinerary for the school trip was six nights at the NASA space camp, lunch with an astronaut, two nights in Washington which included a tour of the US Capitol building and an airboat tour of the Florida Everglades.
Victoria Police released a statement on its official website, it read: "Police are investigating a collision between a truck and school bus in Bacchus Marsh early this morning.
"The collision occurred on the Western Highway, near the intersection of Condons Lane, causing the bus to roll down an embankment about 3.15am. One teenage girl will be airlifted to hospital with serious injuries. The male truck driver will be taken to hospital by road with serious injuries.
"The Melbourne-bound lanes of the Western Highway are expected to remain closed for several hours and motorists are urged to take an alternative route. Any concerned parents seeking information regarding their children are asked not to attend the scene and to instead call Ballarat Police Station."
