A 14-year-old boy broke his leg and 26 others are being treated for minor injuries after a bus crash in southern NSW

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

A woman in her 60s has suffered serious head injuries and a young boy a broken leg after a bus carrying a Griffith church group crashed in southern New South Wales.

Ambulance NSW said a “confronting” scene greeted paramedics called to the accident on Burley Griffin Way at Harden, northwest of Canberra, just before 8.30am on Friday.

Images posted on social media show the bus had run off the road and crashed into a paddock, with its front crushed and windshield smashed.

The coach is believed to have been heading to Sydney.

Authorities said the bus was carrying 28 people, including the driver, with the children on board aged between eight and 14.

The woman, 65, and eight-year-old boy have been flown to Canberra Hospital.

Ambulance inspector Stephen Pollard said neither patient had life-threatening injuries.

“They will be OK,” he said.

Twenty-five others on the bus, the majority of them children, have been transferred to Harden Hospital with minor injuries.

“I suppose we can say they were all shaken, but not stirred,” Pollard said.

“We walked them up to the top of the hill. We did a quick triage to make sure none were seriously injured. Then we organised a bus to get them into Harden Hospital.”

The driver is at the scene assisting police, with a crime scene set up and the Major Crash Task Force on their way.