A teenage girl has died and a 17-year-old boy has been arrested after they crashed in a police pursuit near Ballan on Tuesday afternoon.
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Police allege the male driver had been involved in a home invasion in Ballarat earlier in the day.
Officers then saw his allegedly stolen Hiace van driving along the Western Freeway before they attempted to intercept the pair just west of Ballan about 2.30pm.
But the driver failed to stop and smashed into a parked VicRoads truck at high speed, writing off both vehicles.
The young Ballarat girl, believed to be in her mid-teens, died at the scene.
The Courier has chosen not to name the people involved.
In response, the police air wing was called in to find the driver, who had allegedly fled on foot across nearby paddocks.
Speaking at the scene of the crash, Assistant Commissioner for Road Policing Doug Fryer said the teenager then allegedly stole another car before heading back to Ballarat.
However, police tracked him down to a house along Willow Grove at Wendouree, arresting him about 6pm.
Large numbers of police closed off a section of the street while the arrest was made.
Police also towed a black, four-door sedan from the property.
“Everyone has choices to make, we’ve had a young man who made a very deliberate decision not to pull over,” Mr Fryer said.
“(He was) driving in such an erratic manner that a young woman is now dead.
“How did this happen? From what I’ve been told, it’s happened because that young man made a decision not to pull over.”
Two occupants of the VicRoads truck were hospitalised following the collision.
Ballarat-bound traffic along the Western Freeway was diverted to Old Melbourne Road as more than a dozen police vehicles arrived at the crash scene.
Detectives from the Major Collision Investigation Unit have launched an investigation into the incident and it will be overseen by Professional Standards Command as per normal procedure.