A classroom of Year 1 students has escaped unscathed after a runaway garbage truck crashed into their Perth primary school, leaving the driver injured and trapped for about an hour.
There were 22 students and a teacher in the Clifton Hills Primary School classroom in Kelmscott, an Education Department spokeswoman confirmed, when the truck left the road, rolled down a slope and smashed into the building just before 9.30am on Thursday.
A nearby resident, Trevor, said he saw the driver leaning across the seat, trying to apply the brake.
"It was on its way and I thought 'nothing's going to stop this'. Then by the time I got out the door, it was in the school," he told 6PR.
St John Ambulance said the female driver had accidentally knocked the handbrake.
The 56-year-old was freed by emergency services and taken by ambulance to Royal Perth Hospital with multiple but non-life threatening injuries, including cuts and abrasions.
A hospital spokeswoman said she was in a stable condition and would spend the night at RPH.
The Education Department spokeswoman confirmed the students and teacher were safely evacuated to another part of the school.
The whole school block, not just the classroom, was evacuated as a precaution while a structural assessment was carried out, she said.
The spokeswoman said counsellors were attending the school to support any shaken-up students, and parents were being contacted to advise them what had happened.
It was amazing the children and teacher escaped injury, she added.
Power lines were damaged, so police cordoned off the street and advised people in the area to be cautious.
Australian Associated Press
