Widow dad’s ‘family tree cut down’ in horror bus crash, court told

The victim of a bus crash whose wife and daughter were killed with eight others has told the driver in an emotional plea he “just wants his old life back”.

Hunter Valley crash driver Brett Button to hear from survivors. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

The victim of a wedding bus crash whose wife and daughter were killed along with eight others in NSW’s Hunter Valley has told the driver that without his “girls I don’t have a life anymore”.

Brett Button, 59, appeared before Newcastle District Court on Monday morning having earlier pleaded guilty to 19 charges, including dangerous driving occasioning death and grievous bodily harm.

Button was driving guests from a wedding reception at the Wandin Valley Estate, two hours north of Sydney, back to Singleton on June 11 when the bus flipped onto its side at a roundabout at Greta.

Brett Button was behind the wheel of the wedding bus. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

Fighting back tears, Graham McBride, the husband and father respectively of victims Nadene and Kyah McBride, said the “loss of my beautiful family and severe injuries have destroyed my life”.

“My family tree has been cut down,” Mr McBride said.

“A father should never have to attend the funeral of their whole family.

“Without my girls, I don’t have a life anymore.

“The most precious thing in my life was savagely ripped from me in a crash that was completely avoidable.”

Mr McBride told the court that his daughter was his “pride and joy” who taught him “a lot of lessons in life”, and despite telling his wife he “wanted seven boys, I got more than that in one Kyah”.

He said he would still watch the sunset where he’d once sat with his wife drinking rose, except now he was “alone watching the sun set hoping you (Nadene) will come back with the sunrise in the morning”.

Nick Dinakis was also on the bus when it crashed, killing his partner Darcy Bulman.

In a heartfelt victim impact statement, Mr Dinakis told the court the crash had left him in the ICU suffering from a brain injury, and his life following the incident was “no longer for living but about survival”.

Ten people were killed and 25 injured in the crash. Picture: NewsWire / Christian Gilles

He described Button’s actions on the day as “selfish and dangerous” and that he had killed the love of his life and “forever person” whom he had planned on proposing to that year while holidaying in Europe.

“You killed her,” Mr Dinakis said.

“You took away her chance to be a mother.

“We both came from broken families and you took away our own.

“You killed my family, my future wife, my best friend.”

Mr Dinakis told Button that he hoped the “image of Darcy and the other nine people you killed are tattooed on your brain” and would “haunt” him for the rest of his life.

Ms Bulman’s mother earlier told the court that she had kept her daughter’s watch that she wore that night and hoped that in delivering her statement she could shift her grief onto Button.

The woman said Button had “weaponised the bus” that night and for months she was “shell-shocked, traumatised”, but after the driver pleaded guilty “understood it was not the bus (or) … the road”.

“It came down to one thing, the actions of the driver: Brett Button … I remind myself daily that the burden of her death is not my cross to bear, it is Mr Button’s,” she said.

“By making this statement, I am finally able to separate my trauma from my grief … it is a USB stick of my grief that I pass to Mr Button. He alone is responsible for my trauma.

“So much was taken from me by Mr Button that night; the life of my precious daughter, my future hopes and dreams, my own security … my joy and my contentment with my life.”

The woman said she did not think Mr Button was a “bad man or a malicious man, but because of the events he became a dangerous man incapable of fulfilling his duty”.

The brother of victim Andrew Scott said the man’s family “do not and cannot comprehend what happened”.

In a separate statement, the mother of Mr Scott’s wife, Lynan, said their family’s life was best described “before and after the crash” by the ECG heartbeat sensor in hospital.

“Before the crash we had watched our daughter’s potential play out into a beautiful mother and wonderful partner … engineer, mentor, and human being,” the woman told the court.

“After, we are left with a surreal feeling, one we always thought happened to people in the news. Now, we realise we are those people. Our family rhythm has been altered so dramatically.”

In his opening address, Judge Roy Ellis said the sentencing proceedings were “pretty well unprecedented as never before have so many people been killed in a motor vehicle incident”.

Judge Ellis told the court that emotions were likely to run high during the three-day sentencing proceedings, and the reams of victim impact statements to be read aloud would be “unsettling”.

Button is in custody on remand. Picture: NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

He added that the proceedings would “result in a lengthy sentence for Mr Button” that would neither please everyone nor “bring back loved ones or cure mental injuries as a result of this incident”.

“Justice is what this sentence is about: justice for the offender and for the victims of this crime and their families. But, justice is not about revenge. Justice is about accountability,” he said.

As many as 35 victim impact statements, including from survivors, are expected to be delivered during three-days of sentencing proceedings.

The seasoned judge is expected deliver Button’s sentence on Wednesday, with as many as 60 people expected to attend on behalf of victims and extra facilities set up for the large amount of media.

It comes more than a year after the horror crash that shook the Hunter Valley and Singleton communities.

Andrew Scott, 35, and wife Lynan Scott, 33, Nadene McBride, 52, daughter Kyah McBride, 22, and her partner, Kane Symons, 21, Darcy Bulman, 30, Rebecca Mullen, 26, Zachary Bray, 29, Tori Cowburn, 29, and Angus Craig, 28, were killed in the crash.

The incident quickly became one of the state’s – and Australia’s – worst ever fatal road incidents, with Button at one point facing a whopping 89 charges, including 10 counts of manslaughter.

Ultimately, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that resulted in the manslaughter charges being dropped to the anger of families. Button is in custody on remand before sentencing.