By Tanya Steele and Callum Ludwig
The incident at Healesville High School on Sunday 18 June has sadly been confirmed to have been caused by a medical episode.
A 37 year old Healesville man suffered a heart attack while driving near the school, causing him to lose control of his vehicle and crash into a school building.
The man’s brother-in-law Adam Frogley said it has been a very challenging time for their family and the man has been confirmed to be in a critical but stable condition in the ICU.
“We continue to hope and pray he will make a full recovery and we are just so proud of his son for calling 000 and getting help to the scene,” he said.
Healesville High School Principal Allan Rennick said the school community’s main priority is supporting the family at this time.
“All that we have suffered is some facility damage, our main concern is for the driver and his family,” he said.
“We are here to support and do what we can.”
The high school has been able to deal with building and structural issues resulting from the accident quite quickly, along with assistance from the Department of Education.
“The vehicle impacted one building, so one access point is out of action for now, but the building itself can still be used,” he said.
Mr Rennick said the Department of Education was prompt in its response to assess, secure and clear the building.
“The year nine locker area and one toilet block are also out of action, but we have other areas to use, so students are not being hugely inconvenienced,” he said.
The high school has had the building inspected and it is anticipated that repairs will take a few months to fix the damages.
“It’s all just physical things, we are more concerned with the human side of this,” said Mr Rennick.
The high school had well-being support for a few days after the accident for the school community to utilise.
“They were there for students and staff to talk to if they needed, we had that in place straight away,” Mr Rennick said.
The incident has made a deep impact on the school and broader community and Mr Andrew Woreley from SES Healesville said that even though the unit is trained, every incident is different and the location made this particular event a challenging situation.
“We arrived with CFA just behind us, and we assessed the scene, established SES command and began working with the paramedics and CFA to help work on the client, then went on to check the hazards involved with the vehicle and building,” he said.
Mr Frogley said they are extremely thankful for the help of the neighbours and emergency services who worked to ensure the driver could make it to the hospital.
The hospital has confirmed at this time the driver remains in critical condition.
