Multi vehicle crash leaves three people in hospital

Healesville SES assisted in a collision involving three cars on Healesville-Yarra Glen road. PICTURE: HEALESVILLE SES

By Renee Wood

A multi vehicle collision in Tarrawarra on Thursday 15 September has left three people in hospital.

Emergency services responded just after 4pm yesterday afternoon, with three cars colliding on Healesville-Yarra Glen near School Lane.

Paramedics, police, Yarra Glen CFA and Healesville SES responded to the crash.

Ambulance Victoria spokesperson said all three drivers were treated at the scene taken to hospital in stable conditions.

A woman believed to be in her 70s suffered a chest injury, a man believed to be in his 40s suffered a chest injury and a woman believed to be in her 40s suffered back pain.

Healesville SES Unit Controller Andrew Worley said his team helped to extract one of the drivers with the jaws of life equipment with fears extraction could cause further injuries.

“One of the vehicles, paramedics had concerns for spinal and neck injuries so we had to extricate her by cutting her out of the car,” Mr Worley said.

“We cut the roof off and extricated her out from the rear of the vehicle in a straight line on to the stretcher and into the ambulance.”

This was the second rescue of the day for Healesville SES on Thursday, plus the fourth in four days and the sixth rescue over 12 days.

Mr Worley said it’s not very often you see this many rescues so close together, with all emergencies different in their own right.

“I tell the team to focus on the fact that we’ve done what we need to to do and have done it to the best of our abilities and that’s the most important thing,” he said.

“We make sure that we look after our members welfare as well so we have critical incident stress management available to them and make sure that we have all the support that we need

Another collision crews attended occurred on Tuesday 13 September on Badger Creek Road, which saw one car roll and the driver was able to get out of the car taken to hospital with minor injuries.

“There have been a lot of incidents in the last couple of weeks and we just want to thank the community for when we’re out driving with lights and sirens, we thank them for being aware and making space for us,” Mr Worley said.