The truck driver involved in a 2022 crash with a school bus that left multiple secondary school students with life-changing injuries has pleaded guilty to a dozen charges, including 10 counts of negligent driving causing serious injury.

A truck driven by Brett Michael Russell rear-ended a bus carrying Loreto College Ballarat students and staff in the early hours of September 21 on the Western Freeway at Bacchus Marsh, north-west of Melbourne.

The Victorian County Court heard on Wednesday that Russell, now aged 63, knew the brakes on a trailer he was towing were defective, but he told police shortly after the incident he decided to drive anyway "because I knew I'd be alright".

But, while driving his usual freight route that morning, he could not stop the truck fast enough, careering into

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