Two young Illawarra Christian School students were airlifted to hospital after two school buses collided “at high speed” on Tuesday afternoon.
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Emergency services were called to the crash involving about 40 children on Tongarra Road at Albion Park just after 3.40pm.
Ambulance NSW Illawarra duty operations manager Inspector Norm Rees said a seven-year-old boy was thrown through a window and onto the road resulting in serious head injuries, when one bus “rear ended another bus at high speed”.
A 10-year-old boy was “thrown about” inside one of the buses and sustained abdomen and leg injuries.
Both were airlifted in the ambulance rescue helicopter to Sydney Children’s Hospital in a serious condition.
Another four children and one adult were taken to Shellharbour Hospital by road ambulance with various injuries including bruising and fractures.
Another 15 children with minor injuries were treated at the scene.
The Illawarra Christian School – which has students from “prep” to Year 12 attending – responded quickly to the accident.
A statement released for parents advised that a Shell Cove/Flinders and Warilla bus would be delayed.
Tongarra campus principal Kate Bertram attended the accident scene.
Mother Katrina Hayward, whose son Jack was in the crash and escaped with a minor shoulder injury, said the response of teachers and students was “a testament to the school”.
“My son called me and said ‘we’ve been in a crash, I’m alright but my shoulder’s a bit sore’,” she said. “But then I’d heard they blocked the road, so I knew it was more serious.
“Seeing the chopper come in is very distressing, to think that someone is that badly injured. But knowing the older kids were there looking out for the little ones just shows how much the school has taught them.”
Drivers of both buses will be taken to Shellharbour Hospital for mandatory blood and urine testing. Lake Illawarra police and crash investigators were looking further into the cause.
The road remained closed for hours after the incident, as investigators from Sydney were delayed by the traffic chaos caused the accident on Mount Ousley Road.
‘Everyone started freaking out’
A number of children and parents from Illawarra Christian School looked on in shock as one of their classmates was airlifted to hospital, after a two-bus crash closed down Tongarra Road on Tuesday afternoon.
Year 9 student Riley Cunningham, who was travelling in the back bus, said the bus in front appeared to “stop out of nowhere”.
“We couldn’t slow down fast enough and we just rear ended him,” Riley said.
“Everyone started freaking out crying, someone got a throat injury and couldn’t breathe.
“I thought I was fine, but then I looked down and there was blood coming out of my mouth because I hit the seat in front.”
“Everyone was scared – we just had to sit and be quiet to see is everyone was fine, and some people had shock blankets.”
Kate McIlwain
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
For more than a decade, I've helped the Illawarra Mercury set the news agenda across the region. Currently I'm the paper's health reporter - covering the stories of Illawarra workers and residents in the wake of a global pandemic and at a time where our health systems are stretched to the limit.
