How emergency services braved foggy conditions in complex rescue
How five helicopters, and a fleet of police and paramedics fought through thick fog to execute a complex rescue mission amid the devastation of the Hunter Valley bus crash.
NSW
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It was a job as complex as it was confronting: a bus on its side, a devastating crash scene, dozens of wedding guests injured, 10 dead, and more lives in the balance.
NSW Ambulance commander Luke Wiseman has revealed just how complicated the job of first responders was in the minutes and hours after the Hunter Valler bus crash.
Five helicopters and a fleet of police and paramedics fought through thick fog to execute a complex rescue mission.
“It was a complex situation as the fog came in,” Commander Wiseman told Ben Fordham on the 2GB radio show on Tuesday.
“We were requesting a total of five helicopters that were heading towards our location. They were unable to land close to the scene and the reason for that was because of the density of the fog.
“We had to organise an alternate landing site, and utilise some police officers that were on scene to actually carry our medical teams to the location so they could provide their assistance.”
He said paramedics, police and fire crews all collaborated swiftly and saved several lives.
“We had a total of three rescue units there … collaboratively, they were all able to achieve what we needed to do to release some of the victims.
“Unfortunately, as we all know, not everyone could be released.”
Mr Wiseman commended all of his first responding units, particularly the new paramedics, for their efforts in saving several lives.
“Our team performed sensationally, particularly those who did arrive on scene early,” he said.
“We did have some new paramedics that were within their training period as they performed exceptionally as with all the other crews that attended on that night.”
Meanwhile, NSW Police Superintendent David Waddell confirmed on Tuesday morning that nine people died at the scene. The tenth later passed away in hospital.
“We had a total of 25 people taken to hospital with a range of injuries, 12 of those people have since been released and we still have 14 in hospital,” Superintendent Waddell said.
“Nine (are at) at John Hunter, two in ICU, one at the Mater, two at Maitland and two at RPA, both those at RPA have had surgeries.
“The injuries range from lacerations to breaks and fractures.”
Supt Waddell, too, is preparing for the toll on his officers.
“Some of our police are visibly distraught. It was a very chaotic scene,” he said.
“The initial response, was quite chaotic for those attending police and other emergency services.
“It’s a traumatic event for all the family, all the friends, from what was a wedding, where people come from wide and far.”
He said the driver of the bus was driving in a manner that was inconsistent with the conditions. Investigations in relation to the vehicle, which has been removed from the crash site, are ongoing.
“We will do further investigations in relation to the vehicle today, we’ve still held the scene (and) the vehicle has been removed,” Supt Waddell said.
“It was removed late last night, we still held the scene (and) we will do some further examination today.”
A community hub will be set up in the Singleton Youth Centre today for anyone in need of trauma counselling from health professionals.
“Communities can pull together and come together in periods like this, we’re expecting that to happen in the next 24 hours,” NSW Premier Chris Minns told Channel 9 on Tuesday morning.
“NSW Health is working with the Mayor of Singleton, Sue Moore, to set up a community hub, if you like, a trauma counselling centre in Singleton at the Youth Centre.
“It’ll be open from 9am this morning (and) it’s available for the community to come and get trauma counselling and speak to health professionals if they need to.”
“This is going to be a traumatic few weeks, perhaps even worse than the initial shock of learning of the disaster on Sunday night,” he told ABC news.
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