A Melbourne plumber screamed "run", sending people diving for safety as a semi-trailer ploughed into an ambulance and a police car on a Melbourne freeway.
The truck collected the parked ambulance, a police car and a car that had already crashed into a guard rail on a freeway interchange ramp in Dandenong North on Monday morning, police say.
Plumber Arthur Tsiligiannis, who'd stopped to help the car that hit the guard rail, screamed out as the truck approached.
"It was just one of those out-of-the-ordinary experiences that was just like watching a movie, and came out of nowhere," Mr Tsiligiannis told AAP on Monday.
"Everyone took a bit of a tumble to be honest. We all scattered and jumped in every direction trying to avoid contact with the truck."
He said there was no time to think and everyone at the scene just ran where they could to avoid the truck, most of them jumping a barricade and rolling down an embankment.
The truck driver, the car driver and Mr Tsiligiannis were all taken to a local hospital with minor injuries, Ambulance Victoria says.
"I'm a bit battered and bruised but I'm okay," Mr Tsiligiannis said.
Ambulance union assistant secretary Danny Hill said he understood it could have been much worse if Mr Tsiligiannis hadn't alerted everyone to the approaching truck.
The ambulance was towed from the scene with significant damage to its rear.
Mr Hill said the crash was a "perfect example" of why it's important that drivers go slow around crash scenes.
His union, the Ambulance Employees Australia Victoria, and others have campaigned for 40km/h speed limits around emergency services vehicles.
"There is a major risk to emergency services, bystanders and injured patients when other vehicles are approaching so fast ... and they're very dynamic scenes," he said.
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