Hunter Valley bus driver addicted to drugs, took pills before fatal crash

Hunter Valley bus driver Brett Button was affected by prescription drugs when he was behind the wheel of the vehicle that crashed and tragically killed 10 wedding guests.

Documents seen by this masthead reveal Button, who on Wednesday pleaded guilty to 10 counts of dangerous driving, had an addiction to opioids that had alarmed doctors and employers.

Button was asked by magistrate Caleb Franklin on 10 occasions how he would plead in relation to dangerous driving causing the deaths of Nadene McBride and her daughter, Kyah, Kane Symons, Andrew Scott and his wife, Lynan, Zach Bray, Angus Craig, Darcy Bulman, Tori Cowburn and Rebecca Mullen.

Brett Button arrives at court on Wednesday. He pleaded guilty to 10 counts of dangerous driving.Credit: Peter Stoop

To each name, Button replied softly with one word: “Guilty.”

Button also pleaded guilty to a series of other dangerous driving charges related to the injuries caused to survivors of the crash.

The driver was facing 10 counts of manslaughter, which were dismissed in exchange for his guilty plea.

Mullen’s father wept in Newcastle Local Court before Button was taken into custody ahead of his sentencing in the District Court later this year.

Button’s lawyer told the court the 59-year-old was carrying medication, which he needed to keep while in prison.

The medication was not named, but this masthead can reveal Button suffered a workplace injury in the 1990s that was treated by an opioid painkiller known as tramadol in the decades since.

Worsening drug addiction

Button developed a growing addiction that had alarmed his doctors and raised questions about his ability to drive buses safely.

A police document, seen by this masthead, says Button put in a WorkCover claim one year before the crash and was sent to see doctors.

One was “concerned” about Button’s amount of oral analgesia in early 2022 and adjusted his prescription to tramadol.

A few months later, a second doctor concluded he was “increasingly dependent on opiate-based medications with diminishing clinical benefit” and vulnerable to addiction.

Button was taking, at that stage, 40 tramadol each week and 10 Panadeine Forte tablets a day.

He was stood down from his work at a bus company, which infuriated him.

The state’s work claims assessor reported in mid-2022 that Button “cannot work as a bus driver without being able to take adequate pain relief”.

Button was desperate to return to work and began to cut down on his dosages, the document states.

A pain specialist, in September 2022, said she “would be surprised if workplace regulations allowed employees to drive in a public transport capacity whilst using opioid analgesics”.

Button’s doctors wanted to more than halve his dosage of tramadol from 250 milligrams to 100 milligrams a day. He said he couldn’t work without the painkillers.

Towards the end of 2022, he resigned from his job and took up work with another bus company. He then landed a job at Linq Buslines, the charter hire company that operated the bus involved in the fatal crash.

There is no record of Button telling Linq about his drug issues.

Seven months later, he rolled their coach outside the town of Greta, killing 10 and injuring many others.

A blood sample, taken hours later, found he had likely ingested 400 milligrams of tramadol in the previous 24 hours.

Prosecutors concluded the tramadol would have impaired his capacity to drive, even with his tolerance from years of use.

The crash ‘war zone’

First responders told police they came across a “war zone” on the roundabout where Button had crashed.

Wedding guests following the bus, in a separate car, tore off the windscreen to reach the injured and tried to pull people from the wreckage.

One saw Button staring, apparently in shock.

The driver called his boss, saying he “f---ed up”.

“I have rolled a bus on Wine Country Drive.”

“You f---ing what? Is everyone OK?” his boss replied.

“No, there are fatalities.”

A doctor would later find some of his behaviour in the aftermath was due to opioids.

Button later told police his passengers had spotted police cars sitting at a petrol station shortly before the crash and teased him about his driving.

“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,” he told officers.

Plea deal divides families

The plea deal between the Director of Public Prosecutions and Button’s lawyer means Button will no longer face trial on manslaughter charges. Some of the victims’ families were outraged by the decision saying they were kept in the dark.

Others were supportive, saying they could begin to move on with their lives.

The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions on Wednesday asked the court to suppress the document containing the full allegations against Button, known as the police fact sheet, until the family could read them.

The court, instead, allowed Button to plead guilty without the document being tendered to the court.

This masthead, which saw and first reported on the documents earlier this year, decided not to report particularly traumatic or confronting passages from the document.

“The Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions sympathises deeply with the families of those who lost their lives in this tragic event, and with the victims who were injured,” a spokeswoman said on Wednesday.

“The decision to accept a plea of guilty involves complex issues of fact and law. These decisions are always made after close and careful consideration of the evidence and in accordance with the prosecution guidelines.”

Bulman’s partner, Nick Dinakis, praised the DPP, saying he was “extremely pleased”.

“I cannot thank the DPP enough for all their hard work. I understand this isn’t a situation that can appease everyone, but it allows myself and the other victims to try and move forward with life,” Dinakis said in a statement on Wednesday.

Earlier this year, Button said: “There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t think about what happened that day, that night. There isn’t an hour that goes by where I am not thinking of the families that have been affected by my actions. I truly feel for anyone involved, including the emergency services. I am devastated by what has occurred and, for that, I am truly and deeply sorry.”

Button’s sentence date is yet to be set.

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