ABOVE: Ken Lay speaks to 3AW's Sunday Morning. Scroll down for an image of the horrific aftermath of the accident.

• Photo Gallery: The chaos at the scene
• Monday: Lone survivor up and about
• 95km/h over limit - near the crash scene!

REPORT: The death of five young men from a car crash in Mill Park which has also left a 15-year-old girl seriously injured in hospital has shocked senior police, ambulance officers and politicians as much as it has shattered the lives of the victims' family and friends.

As Melbournians wake to another working day, at least four families are faced with the rest of their life without loved ones – taken away from them so young as a result of a high-powered car driven by a driver 'with history' hitting a tree while out of control and speeding up to 150km/h.

The driver, Steven Johnstone, was reportedly in a rush when he left a party early on Sunday morning in his Ford XR6 with his brother, 15-year-old Will Te-Whare and mates Mathew Lister, 17, Ben Hall, 19, Anthony Iannetta, 18, and the latter's 15-year-old sister, Elissa, who was the only survivor.

Shortly after the car apparently went through Ivanhoe at around 150km/h with one of the passengers 'hanging out the window', according to Deputy Commissioner for Traffic Ken Lay, it sped like a bullet through the intersection of Childs Road and Plenty Road in Mill Park before ramming into a massive oak tree.

The metre-wide trunk of the tree was split in half such was the force the Ford XR6 hit it with.

It's believed, via Elissa Ianetta's family after they had visited the girl in hospital, that her brother shielded her from the impact as best as he could in the final moments of his life. Elissa is in a stable condition in the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

Paramedic team manager Ron McLeod said the first crew arrived within five minutes to a scene of devastation.

"It was a horrific scene where the car had gone into a tree which was three feet in diameter, and ripped it out of the ground," he said.

"The car was split in two. The only way I could tell it was a Falcon was the boot had been blown off the car. Paramedics saw there were four men who had died and a 15-year-old girl who was trapped in the back seat."

"All you could see of the girl was her head and an arm sticking out of the wreckage and the bodies of two men were trapped on top of her."

Mr McLeod said rescue workers had to lift three of the dead teens off the 15-year-old to free her from the crushed vehicle.

"I've been a paramedic for 30 years and this is the most horrific scene I've ever seen," Mr McLeod said.

"It was just carnage everywhere, especially with five young lives that have been lost."

Lay told 3AW Radio driver Johnstone was a P-Plater.

"We believe he has had a prior conviction for a high speed in the last year or so and he should not have had passengers in the car with him," Lay told 3AW's Sunday Morning program.

"He had a five-seater car with six people in it and as a result we have five kids dead and a shocking story about a 15-year-old girl who was trapped underneath broken bodies for a long time while we tried to get her out."

As news of the horrific accident and resulting fatalities, around hundred mourners – made up of the victims' family and friends – arrived at the harrowing scene where flowers and tributes were placed.

Despite the horrific nature of a crash which has touched many, many lives – Lay highlighted Australia has come a long way in the area of road safety over the past three decades.

"Look, we wake up on a morning like this and we start to think this is the worst it's ever been … but if you look back 20 or 30 years when 1,000 people died a year we were waking up to this once or twice a week," he said.

"I think we are making a difference … we had a record low road toll in '09 and in '08 and this is the worst crash we have had in three years. But kids sometimes at this age are really difficult to get through to."

“Some of them have come from troubled lives, troubles families and they have exhibited behaviours right through their lives that indicate they probably shouldn’t be driving cars so I think we have some work to do in understanding the whole host of social impacts which result into people getting into cars that shouldn’t.”

On the subject of the Victorian Hoon Legislation, which sees drivers who choose to exceed the speed by over 45km/h, engage in dangerous driving practices or street race against other motorists have their vehicle towed away for an initial 48 hours, Lay said it is an effective deterrent.

"We have had this hoon impoundment legislation for the past three years and we have impounded 10,000 cars  in that time … we find about one per cent of that 10,000 offend a second time," said Lay, before adding around 50 per cent of the 'hoons' are P-Platers.

Meanwhile, acting Victorian Roads Minister Tim Holding would not be drawn on whether the accident would cause a rethink in the government's road safety strategy, saying he would wait until results of the investigation of the crash are released before assessing.

"This is just a terrible tragedy … every parent's nightmare," he said.

Meanwhile, the tragedy has caused an outpouring of both grief and anger on the 3AW website since Sunday morning (see the comments below), with one mother using the tragedy to hammer home the importance of road safety to her children.

"My deepest sypmathy goes to the parents of the deceased victims," writes Katyhy. "I live in Mill Park and I took my two boys - aged 7 and 9 - to where the accident happened and I explained a few facts of life to them."

"They were touched by all of this. We stood there and watched all the young ones mourning the loss of a loved one but are they going to get in the car tonight and disobey the road rules. I don't think that this will get through their thick heads. I think that the laws need to toughen up in the sense that nobody under 25 is allowed to drive anything other than a four-cylinder car with no modifications and strictly only allowed one passenger in the car."

"There's no use wasting money on advertisements they just dont get it."

Police are appealing for anyone who may have seen the blue Ford sedan driving erratically in the area prior to the collision to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 or visit www.crimestoppers.com.au.

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