Carnage on the road: Australia’s worst bus disasters

With 10 people dead and multiple others hospitalised, the Hunter Valley bus crash on Sunday night is the fifth-worst on record in Australia.

To find the worst crashes, you have to go back to the late 1980s, when horror crashes at Kempsey and Grafton in NSW killed 56 people and led to major reforms to the industry.

Kempsey, NSW – December 22, 1989

Thirty-five people were killed when two tourist bushes crashed on the Pacific Highway north of Kempsey.Credit:

The deadliest bus crash in Australian history was a few days before Christmas in 1989, when two tourist coaches crashed head-on 12 kilometres north of Kempsey, on the Pacific Highway at Clybucca Flat. Thirty-five people died, including two bus drivers, and another 41 were injured, when the driver of a bus bound for Sydney fell asleep at the wheel and collided with the coach bound for Brisbane.

Grafton, NSW – October 20, 1989

Aftermath of the Grafton bus crash. October 20, 1989. Credit: Cermak/Fairfax Media

Only 200 kilometres away, and two months before that collision at Kempsey, 21 people died and 22 people were seriously injured when a semi-trailer crashed into a coach on the same highway near Grafton.

The truck driver, who died in the crash, was found to have an extraordinary high level of ephedrine in his blood, about 80 times normal use. It is now illegal to drive a heavy vehicle while under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

The National Safety Commission found the Kempsey and Grafton crashes were “arguably Australia’s most catastrophic examples of high consequence/low probability incidents in the bus industry”.

In their aftermath, the NSW Coroner recommended a review of coach seats, seat anchorages, seatbelts and better emergency exits for coaches.

There were also renewed calls for the creation of a dual carriageway highway between Newcastle and the Queensland border. The upgrade took 20 years and was said to have been completed in 2020. But locals near Coffs Harbour told the Herald that the bypass near them had yet to begin.

Linden, NSW – October 15, 1992

The bus came to a rest only centimetres from a 15-metre drop after the 1992 crash in the Blue Mountains.Credit: Andrew Meares

In 1992, a 65-year-old woman died and 41 older members of a church group were injured when a semi-trailer slammed into the side of their bus on the Great Western Highway at Linden in the Blue Mountains. The coach came to rest only centimetres from the edge of a 15-metre drop onto a railway cutting. If the bus had gone over the edge, rescue workers said there would have been little hope of survival for those on board.

Exford, Victoria – May 16, 2023

Thirteen children were taken to hospital after a truck collided with a school bus on Melbourne’s western fringe.Credit: Jason South

In early May, 13 children were taken to hospital, including 10 with serious injuries, after a truck collided with a school bus carrying 45 students from Exford Primary School on Melbourne’s western fringe.

Safe Transport Victoria is reviewing rules that require seatbelts to be fitted and worn on school buses but have no legal enforcement.

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