Townsville grandmother Emma “Alli” Sailor, 56 and German tourists Aliya Tonga, 21, and Marissa Martin, 33, were killed and dozens more injured when a Greyhound bus collided with a four-wheel drive towing a caravan at Gumlu, south of Townsville, just after 11am on June 30, 2024.

Speaking for the first time since the horror crash, Emma’s daughter Gracie Sailor said she was on the bus with her four small children.

“(Mum) was trying to make (my newborn) settle … she passed him over, I fed bubba and put him down … I closed my eyes for a few seconds and then I heard the bang …. the glass shattered, I held onto my son,” she said.

Gracie also revealed they had considered getting a hotel when they stopped in Rockhampton.

Police allege the bus had crossed onto the wrong side of the Bruce Highway and into oncoming traffic.

The impact of the collision caused the caravan to detach from the 4WD and become lodged inside the bus.

Those sitting behind the driver’s seat were exposed to the brunt of the collision.

The bus then left the road and travelled down an embankment before eventually coming to a stop on train tracks several metres away from the highway.

Gracie said she believed the train tracks had prevented more passengers from being seriously injured.

“When we stopped I quickly looked at (my kids) and grabbed them … I looked at mum … I didn’t want them (my kids) to see how she was,” she said.

“I tried to get back on the bus to help my mum.”

About an hour after the crash, Emma’s partner Matthew Farkas was waiting to pick up his “soulmate” from the Greyhound bus terminal in Townsville when he received a harrowing phone call from their daughter Elisha.

“I got up late and I saw the time … (Emma) told me the bus would be (in Townsville) at 12pm so I drove there as quickly as I could … I got there at 11.57am, I texted her and said ‘How far are you away bub?’ … I got no answer so I thought she must be close.

“Then I think about 5/10 minutes later Elisha rang me up and said ‘Mum has been in a bus crash and she’s not responding to first aid’.”

Mr Farkas said he initially started driving towards the crash but was told the highway was blocked for several kilometres.

“I turned around and went to (Townsville Hospital) … I went to reception and asked them whether they knew about a bus crash … I said ‘do you know who’s coming’ … then I got a phone call saying ‘Emma’s passed away’, I started screaming and yelling.”

The bus driver – Peter Jason Cafe – was later charged with five counts of dangerous operation of a vehicle causing death or grievous bodily harm.

Cafe’s matter remains before the courts.

Mr Farkas said Emma’s tragic death and subsequent court proceedings had “taken a toll” on him.

“It was Emma’s birthday last week on the 19th … I find it difficult to get up in the morning … I’m still grieving,” he said.

Mr Farkas lovingly admired his screen saver – a photo of Emma – as he spoke of life without his “shadow”.

“She meant everything to me, we were joined at the hip,” Mr Farkas said.

“I would get up to make a cup of tea and she would follow me out (of the room).

“She was just like a shadow, wherever I looked she was there with me.”

Several other photos of Emma have been plastered around the couple’s Aitkenvale home.

“It comforts me, just to see her all the time,” Mr Farkas said.

“I go down to the cemetery every day, just to sit and talk to her.”

While Gracie described her mother as “down to earth” – a selfless woman who would immediately drop what she was doing to help others.

“She was always there for us,” she said.

Gracie said her family had been to Gladstone to pick up the keys for her new home.

“I sometimes blame myself (for mum’s death), asking her to come with me to Gladstone,” she said.

She said Emma’s 14 grandchildren often asked about their beloved “nanna”.

“The other day my son (Isaias) said ‘Mum, I thought nanna was going to live longer’, I didn’t know how to react to that …. I’m trying to be strong for the kids,” Gracie said.

Mr Farkas said he and Emma met 22 years ago with their first date a “KFC picnic” on Castle Hill.

“Where she’s buried now, she’s facing towards Castle Hill,” Mr Farkas said.

He said the last text message he ever received from Emma was early on that fateful day.

“She said ‘we were meant to leave at 10am but got delayed’ and the usual ‘love you, see you soon’,” he said.

Mr Farkas said Emma also shared a photo of herself and granddaughter Missy on the bus.

Ever since the crash, Mr Farkas said he had been “concerned” about what his grandchildren had witnessed.

Emma’s eldest child Elisha Sailor said she was trying to be “strong” for her siblings.

“Mum was the light of the family, she always knew what to say.”

Emma’s son Wya Sailor said he was in the Cook Islands at the time of the crash but that his mother had dropped him off at the airport and said ‘I’ll be back to pick you up’.

Emma was a devout Christian who was also the head of her church choir in Townsville.