Gasps echoed across a court room filled with dozens of teens involved in a crash as they watched the moment a truck with faulty brakes ploughed into their school bus.
Four young girls left with debilitating injuries and their loved ones spoke of physical and emotional trauma as the truck driver who caused the 2022 crash appeared on a screen mounted above them.
“Unfortunately, I remember every second of the impact,” a girl who was aged 15 at the time, who cannot be identified, told a Melbourne court.
“I hear everyone’s screams when I hear a truck on the road, smell diesel leaking out every time I’m on the bus.
“I can never forget the bodies flying as we went down the embankment.”
A mother of another 15-year-old student took aim at Croydon truckie Brett Russell’s conduct in the criminal case.
“Your no-show in court, questioning of charges and querying of seriousness of injuries, has … continually placed my daughter and all these girls under psychological stress,” she said.
“Your actions continue to live on in the very existence of this court case … continuing to rub salt into open wounds.”
Russell, 63, faced a pre-sentence hearing at Melbourne’s County Court on Wednesday via video link from prison, after his lawyer successfully applied for him to appear remotely.
Judge Michael O’Connell said he granted the application because of medical material suggesting Russell had serious health issues that would make getting to court difficult.
He appeared emotionless as he pleaded guilty to 12 charges after causing physical and psychological injuries to 32 people on the bus, including 27 students, four staff and a bus driver.
In pitch black, the early hours of September 21, 2022, Russell drove a prime mover truck towing two trailers – all of which had defective brakes – from northwest Victoria to Melbourne.
About 3.16am on the Western Freeway, Russell’s truck slammed into the back of a Loreto College Ballarat bus that had slowed because of banked up traffic.
The students were on their way to the airport for the trip of a lifetime to a NASA camp in the US.
Their bus was pushed down a steep embankment and rolled several times.
Three passengers were thrown from the bus, including a 15-year-old girl who suffered life-altering injuries and had to have her foot partially amputated.
The girl told the court earlier she wished she had died in the crash.
“I am very glad I’m alive, but then none of my pain, or my suffering, would be here,” she said, between tears.
Her mother described her own trauma after hearing the girl had been “flung out of the bus like a rag doll” and then underwent three surgeries to save her foot.
“The bus was airborne, tumbled down an embankment in the black darkness of the night,” she told the court, overcome with emotion.
“It was something like a horror movie.”
Russell pleaded guilty to 10 counts of negligently causing serious injury to seven students, whose ages ranged from 14 to 18, and three Loreto staff members.
He is facing up to 10 years in prison for the charges.
Russell also pleaded guilty to reckless conduct that placed bus driver Wayne Orr, the remaining passengers and three roadside workers in danger of serious injury.
The traffic management workers rushed to rescue occupants on the bus, many of whom were trapped inside, before emergency services arrived.
Russell admitted to police when he was interviewed that he knew there was a risk in towing two trailers and driving a truck with defective brakes.
“Yes. And I still took the risk,” he told police.
Prosecutor Jim Shaw said he was criminally negligent and fell greatly short of the standard of care a reasonable person would have exercised in continuing to drive with faulty brakes.
The pre-sentence hearing continued on Thursday.
