Emergency services workers at the crash scene.
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POLICE say it was lucky a two-truck collision just outside of Ballarat yesterday did not result in more serious injuries, if not a fatality.
A large double-trailer truck crashed into the side of a another turning truck from behind on Colac-Ballarat Road at Cambrian Hill about 10am yesterday, flipping the smaller truck as the other lost control and was forced off the road.
The driver of the truck that rolled over remained trapped under his vehicle for more than half an hour as CFA rescue workers tried to free him from underneath the overturned cabin.
Rescue workers jacked up the front end of his truck while he was careful removed from the wreckage.
Once freed, the 23-year-old Clunes man was taken to Ballarat Health Services Base Hospital with leg fractures, as well as pelvic and abdominal injuries.
The air ambulance was called in from Melbourne but was turned away and the man taken to Ballarat.
He is in a serious but stable condition, while his 29-year-old passenger from Creswick was treated at the scene.
The driver of the larger truck, a 38-year-old Gordon man, was also taken to hospital with leg injuries.
Moorabool Highway Patrol Leading Senior Constable Brett Ellens said the crash happened when the smaller truck tried to turn right off Colac Road.
He said it was travelling away from Ballarat and had just made a u-turn after missing a turnoff, immediately before the other truck crashed into it from behind.
“It was lucky there was low speed from the truck in front otherwise it could have been much worse,” Leading Senior Constable Ellens said.
The speed limit along that straight section of Ballarat-Colac road is 100km/h.
The road remained closed for more than four hours as emergency crews worked to clear the wreckage.
