Hunter Valley bus driver Brett Button: Agreed facts reveal timeline to horror crash

Timeline to tragedy: A statement of agreed facts, set to be tendered in court, contains harrowing, first-hand accounts of the lead-up to the horrific Hunter bus crash which killed 10 people and injured a further 25 passengers.

Brett Button displayed strange behaviour leading up to the catastrophic bus crash which claimed the lives of 10 wedding-goers.

Killer bus driver Brett Button was behaving oddly in the hours leading up to the Hunter crash which left 10 dead and 25 injured, boasting to wedding guests he could perform “donuts”.

He jiggled with doors before leaving them open as he drove and spoke of how quickly his blood alcohol level had diminished after he blew “0.4” a few days beforehand.

An agreed statement of facts, signed by Button and his legal team and set to be formally tendered in court on Thursday, also reveal the harrowing moments immediately after the crash at Greta where passengers and onlookers clambered through the overturned coach looking for survivors amid bodies and horrific scenes which police later described as a “war zone”.

Experts have detailed how Button, moments after telling passengers “this next part is going to be fun”, was estimated to be travelling at 56.48km/h as he accelerated through the roundabout “falling at the higher end of normal driving and towards aggressive” despite the “tipping threshold” of the bus being just 31km/h.

Hunter Valley wedding bus crash. Picture: 9 News

“Taking into account the location, being a roundabout as opposed to a straight section of road, [collision reconstruction expert Gavin Lennon] opines that the braking and acceleration rates applied by the offender were excessive, unnecessary and aggressive,” the facts state.

The document also details Button being impaired by the prescribed opiate painkiller Tramadol after consuming “substantial amounts” of the drug, in a quantity exceeding the maximum recommended dose. Almost three hours after the crash, Button had 0.62mg/L of Tramadol in his bloodstream.

Brett Button at one of his court appearances. The driver is now in custody on remand and is due to face Newcastle District Court again on Thursday.

While Button told officers he had taken 250mg of Tramadol on the day of the crash, a clinical forensic pharmacologist said the blood concentration recorded strongly suggested Button had taken around 400mg of the opioid in the 24 hours prior, the agreed facts state.

The document also details how Button had left one bus company because of concerns about his Tramadol use and failed to tell his new employer he was taking it at all.

Police at the scene of the crash. Picture: David Swift

The facts detail the fears of passengers as Button drove from a wedding reception at Wandin Valley Estate back to Singleton, with several guests putting their seatbelts on because of Button’s driving.

Passengers said Button “put on music and fostered a party atmosphere” and engaged in banter including saying “if you liked this corner, you’re going to like this one”.

At one point, passenger Nikiforos Dinakis said: “this guy’s going a bit fast, he’s gone crazy”. Button replied: “Oh it’s nothing” and described times he has driven fast.

As the bus passes the Ampol service station at Greta, a car overtakes the bus and Button appears annoyed before saying something like: “f--k, f--k this”.

Passenger Nikiforos Dinakis (right) pictured with his partner Darcy Bulman who died in the crash.

Wandin Valley Estate in the Hunter Valley.

As he approached the roundabout, Button said: “This next part is going to be fun” and accelerated, prompting Jason Junkeer to tell his wife, Sharyn, “He’s coming in hot”.

Mrs Junkeer replied: “He’s going too fast” while Megan Hooper told her partner Dylan Burns: “I’m scared” and Mr Burns held Ms Hooper down on his lap.

As the bus hit the roundabout, Mr Junkeer said: “mate” while Mr Burns said: “slow down”.

The facts detail the horrific scene after the bus rolled onto its side and crashes into an Armco railing, despite some survivors later telling authorities they had varying degrees of memory of the immediate aftermath.

“Many of them had fallen down onto what had been the left side of the bus or been thrown into a different location within the bus,” the facts state.

Emotional scenes at Greta following the crash last June. Picture: David Swift

“A number of them called out as they tried to locate their loved ones amidst the chaos, and helped others with injuries to get free of the bus.

“They describe seeing ‘dead bodies and body parts all around’ and ‘horrific images of what was on the ground’.”

At Singleton District Hospital, Button recounted details of the drive to police officers while waiting to have blood and urine samples taken.

“I was driving with my cruise control on, as I was coming down the hill, I turned my cruise control off and sped up going down the hill,” he said.

“I didn’t accelerate going back up the hill so I would slow down.

“I didn’t brake going into the roundabout because I was already at a slow enough speed, I have driven this road plenty of times.”

People leaving floral tributes near the scene of the horrific bus crash. Picture: Jonathan Ng

At 4.10am, in a conversation with police recorded by body-cam, Button said he was not looking at his speedo but thought he was travelling at “like 30 (km/h) or something”.

Button has pleaded guilty to dangerous driving occasioning the deaths of Darcy Bulman (aged 30), Rebecca Mullen (26), Zachary Bray (29), Andrew Scott (35) and his wife Lynan Scott (33), Tori Cowburn (29), Angus Craig (28), Nadene McBride (52), her daughter Kyah McBride (22) and Kyah’s partner Kane Symons (21).

Button is due to face Newcastle District Court on Thursday, where the case is expected to be adjourned for a fortnight before a sentence hearing is set.

Originally published as Hunter Valley bus driver Brett Button: Agreed facts reveal timeline to horror crash