Hunter Valley bus crash survivor’s demand of killer driver

A man on a wedding bus that crashed, killing 10 people and injuring 25 more has made a demand of the driver as he faced sentencing in court.

A man who says he watched his friend die after the wedding bus they were in crashed in NSW’s Hunter Valley, killing 10 people and injuring 25 more, has told the driver his “future has been destroyed”.

Brett Button, 59, appeared before Newcastle District Court on Tuesday 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, 2023 when the bus flipped at a roundabout at Greta.

Taking the stand to deliver his impact statement following a day and a half of hearings, one survivor demanded Button look at him before telling him he'd trapped him in a “bus of hell”.

“My friends didn’t deserve to die, the others didn’t deserve to die,” he said.

Brett Button faced a second day of sentence hearings on Tuesday. Picture: NewsWire / Damian Shaw

“The families here don’t deserve to be here.

“My future has been destroyed because of your actions. I can no longer be the person I was.

“The intergenerational trauma you have caused is enormous.”

In a separate statement, another survivor told the court and Button that while the bus driver bore “considerable responsibility, I believe he was let down by systems that have failed all of us”.

“The accident was a perfect storm of enormous gaps, loopholes and an absence of inter-agency communications and information sharing all aligning to culminate in this tragedy,” she said.

Other survivors detailed lifelong injuries they stood to suffer as a result of the crash.

One woman said she now lived with chronic pain including a permanent “head tilt” and that her mouth no longer opened fully, leading to a level of social isolation she told the court was “suffocating”.

Another survivor described how after more than 50 stitches he now struggled explaining to new friends how he received them and felt guilty about his shame having survived the crash.

All of the survivors who gave evidence on Tuesday described scenes of “carnage” after the crash, from shell-shocked passengers bloodied by severe injuries to the bodies of those who had died.

Earlier on Tuesday, Steve Symons fought back tears to tell Button about how his son, Kane, had seized on a “second chance” after a childhood injury only to have it “cruelly” robbed from him.

“Kane’s death has shattered our lives. It has left an unrepairable void. He was a vibrant and ambitious young man who had been given a rare second chance at life,” Mr Symons told the court.

“He lived with an acute awareness of just how precious life is and embraced every moment of it. To lose him now after he was given that second chance at life is both cruel and unjust.”

Zachary Bray was also given a “second chance” after a battle with stage-3 bowel cancer. His mother, Jackie, said he “always chose the right path”, yet did not make it home on June 11.

“In many ways, Zac was the perfect child if there ever was one. He just wanted to please and did so his entire life, making his family, friends and colleagues proud in everything he did,” she said.

10 people were killed and 25 injured in the crash. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

“He and his friends did what they were told to do: have a plan B. They trusted the bus driver would get them home safely, but my son who did everything right still didn’t make it home.

“Zac got a death sentence, and his family and friends got a life sentence.”

At least 35 people are expected to provide witness impact statements to the court during a marathon three-day sentence hearing that began on Monday morning before Judge Roy Ellis.

Among those who gave evidence on Monday was Graham McBride, whose wife Nadene and daughter Kyah were killed in the crash. He told Button without his “girls I don’t have a life anymore”.

“My family tree has been cut down. A father should never have to attend the funeral of their whole family … The most precious thing in my life was savagely ripped from me,” Mr McBride said.

Nick Dinakis was also on the bus when it crashed, killing his partner Darcy Bulman. He told the court that since the horrific incident his life was “no longer for living but about survival”.

“You killed her. You took away her chance to be a mother. You killed my family, my future wife, my best friend,” Mr Dinakis said in reference to his partner, Ms Bulman, while fighting back tears.

In his opening address, Judge 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”.

The seasoned judge is expected to 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.