A nine-year-old boy is the only survivor from a fiery smash between a car and a truck in Victoria, which killed four others believed to be members of his family.
Police initially believed the boy survived by being thrown from the vehicle before it caught fire, which happened near the rural community of Catani, southeast of Melbourne.
But truck driver Ken McLeod, of nearby Yannathan, says he helped pull the crying boy from the wreckage as the flames took hold.
"I went out around the other side and I got him out," he told ABC television.
"He said something about his brothers and sisters in this car, too."
Police say the car had the right of way on Friday morning when it appears the truck went through a stop sign and hit the vehicle.
The force of the impact pushed the car nearly 50 metres down the road, sent its engine tumbling into the ditch and ignited a massive fire.
The truck then rolled on top of it.
Assistant Commissioner Robert Hill says he couldn't believe the boy survived.
"It's just a miracle he's survived. We don't know how," he said.
The boy suffered only superficial injuries, and is being comforted in hospital by social workers.
It took nearly all of Friday to formally identify the four bodies found burnt inside the crushed car.
Police say the victims are a 37-year-old man, a 33-year-old woman, a six-year-old girl and two-year-old boy.
It's believed they are the surviving boy's father, mother, sister and brother, who all lived in nearby Poowong.
The 27-year-old truck driver, contracted by transport company Asixa, escaped with minor injuries and is under police guard in hospital.
Police on Friday night charged Jobandeep Gill, of Noble Park, with four counts of culpable driving causing death, four counts of dangerous driving causing death, one count of reckless conduct endangering life and one count of failing to stop at a stop sign.
He will remain under police guard until he appears in Melbourne Magistrates Court for a hearing expected on Tuesday.
