Following collisions in remote Victoria involving over twenty vehicles, one person is in critical condition and nineteen others have been sent to hospitals throughout Melbourne.
There were many vehicle crashes shortly before 4pm at Myrniong, approximately 58km west of Melbourne, causing the Western Motorway between Bacchus Marsh and Ballan to be closed in both directions.
There was additional commuter congestion for those going to Geelong and other parts of western Victoria during that incident, which the police have attributed to fog.
The West Gate Motorway was closed for about an hour after a truck driver lost his life in a collision with a train in Geelong, stopping V/Line services from the capital to the city.
Twenty patients were brought to hospitals from the Myrniong crash, according to Ambulance Victoria, with one patient being transferred to Royal Melbourne Hospital in critical condition.
The remaining 19 were transferred to Royal Melbourne, Ballarat Base Hospital, Sunshine Hospital, and Footscray Hospital while in stable situations.
Victoria Police reported there were no suspected injuries in the collision at West Gate.
Traffic gradually cleared on the West Gate Motorway by 5 p.m., while the Western Motorway and V/Line services between Lara and Waurn Ponds were suspended beyond 9 p.m.
Drivers headed towards Bacchus Marsh, where they had to take a long diversion via Geelong-Bacchus Marsh Road into Geelong, then Geelong-Ballan Road, were being diverted off the motorway in the direction of Ballarat.
Drivers headed towards Melbourne were detoured off the motorway near Greendale-Myrniong Road, and instructed to take Pentland Hills Road and the Old Western Highway instead.
When driving out of Melbourne, drivers should think about using longer routes, such as the Princes Motorway to Geelong and the Midland Highway to Ballarat.
Vic Roads spokeswoman asked drivers to reduce their speed.
“There are reports of extensive fog covering parts of the Western Motorway,” they stated.
“Motorists should slow down, drive to the conditions and have their headlights on to be better seen.”
Following a collision, police had earlier stopped all outward lanes of the West Gate Motorway from Grieve Parade, Altona North. However, at approximately 5 p.m., two lanes were restored.
At the Grieve Parade exit, all traffic headed for Geelong was rerouted onto a single lane, resulting in delays exceeding ninety minutes, extending all the way back to the Domain tunnel.
After a tragic truck-train collision at North Shore, near Geelong, which shut down the rail line for passengers commuting between Lara and Waurn Ponds, hours later, there was chaos in the roads.
Following a collision between a V/Line train and a truck that killed the truck driver, about 25 passengers were evacuated.
With emergency personnel still on site, there were significant delays on the Geelong and Warrnambool lines far into the night.
According to a V/Line representative, trains will keep running between Southern Cross and Lara, and coaches will carry passengers between Lara and Waurn Ponds.
From Warrnambool west of Geelong, the same arrangements applied.
According to a spokesman, the connections between Waurn Ponds in Warrnambool and Lara in Melbourne would be blocked for the foreseeable future.
