In their own words: The tragedy of the Hunter Valley bus crash

What is a life worth? What about 10? For coach driver Brett Button, who took too many pills and drove too fast before crashing his bus in the Hunter Valley, 10 lives will cost him 32 years in prison.

But for survivors of the fatal bus accident in winter 2023, and for the families of the dead, no sentence could ease their grief, or return what they have lost.

Yet when Button trembled in the dock of Newcastle Court, listening as a judge calculated the incalculable, cries of shock went up around the room.

First responders at the scene of the bus crash.Credit: Nine

This was not a sentence anybody expected.

For two full days a dark cloud settled over Judge Roy Ellis’ court as victim impact statements were read by those who were, in many ways, still trapped in the wreckage off Wine Country Drive.

“My brother was trapped inside that bus, and I am constantly reminded of it,” Zach Bray’s sister, Montana, told the court on Tuesday.

Bray was just one of 10 who died along with Nadene and Kyah McBride, Kane Symons, Andrew Scott and wife, Lynan, Angus Craig, Darcy Bulman, Tori Cowburn and Rebecca Mullen.

All on board his bus that evening had been guests at a wedding closely linked to Singleton’s Australian rules football club, the Roosters. These were not random passengers together on a bus, as prosecutors pointed out, they were interconnected as friends, teammates, partners and family.

One man’s heartbreaking evidence revealed how the interconnections surrounded survivors with death.

Graham “Banger” McBride lost his wife, Nadene, their only child Kyah and Kyah’s boyfriend, Kane “Sugar” Symons – all played, officiated in coached for the Roosters.

“I now go to the master’s games not to watch my wife play footy, but instead to present a memorial trophy in honour of my wife,” McBride said.

Survivors recounted the sight of their loved-ones’ dismembered bodies, cold hands in the morgues, memorial trophies bearing the names of players taken in their prime.

The deaths robbed them of their futures, as partners, parents and grandparents in the case of McBride.

Two women penned letters revealing they had only recently found Nadene McBride, after realising they were long-lost sisters who had been adopted out as children.

“I will never be able to finish building the relationship with Nadene and Kyah that I was hoping for. It hurts. It hurts a lot,” Fiona Gray wrote.

Lynda Seymour had yet to even meet her sister, whom she tracked down in May 2023. “How do you grieve for someone you never met?” Seymour wrote. “I found her and lost her within one month.”

On the fateful evening Button had played into the merry mood of his passengers, who said it felt “like a rollercoaster” bouncing down the country road.

“If you liked that corner, you’re going to like this one,” he said just before the roundabout.

The roundabout tightens before it spits traffic onto the Hunter Expressway. A tall vehicle like the Linq Buslines coach would tip at just over 30km/h, the court heard. Button had been going between 50 and 60km/h.

Added to that, he had been nursing a 30-year addiction to the painkiller Tramadol.

Many survivors blamed “systemic failures” of the prescribing doctors and the coach industry, asking why drivers weren’t drug tested like pilots.

Some found the strength to pity Button, acknowledging his own life had been ruined in the crash as well. Others couldn’t forgive, or even bring themselves to call the crash an “accident”.

Button sat inside a clear holding cell in the court, head bowed, until one survivor demanded he look up and meet his eyes.

“It reminded me of the night where he killed 10 people intentionally and had his hands in his pockets, while I had no shirt, and my shirt was covering one of my best mates’ heads as he was bleeding to death,” Drew El Moussali said.

Button did not intentionally kill anyone. He was charged with manslaughter before those charges were dropped for guilty pleas to dangerous driving occasioning death, among others.

“He knowingly over-medicated and chose to drive under those conditions, putting countless lives at risk and destroying so many, including our family’s,” Bray’s mother said, disappointed by the deal.

Ellis is not known for fire and brimstone sentences, so Button and his lawyers likely held a sliver of hope at those words.

Prosecutors believed Button was looking at about 15 years in prison, sources with intimate knowledge told the Herald.

So when Ellis read the sentence, 32 years prison with 24 before parole, people from all sides of the court gasped.

Symons’ father, Steve, said he was surprised at the result – but happy.

“It showed they mattered,” he said outside court.

Button tearfully apologised, for the first time speaking in his own gravelly and small voice, just before the sentence.

“How do you say you’re sorry for such a horrible, tragic event that has ruined the lives of hundreds of people?” he wept. “I can’t forgive myself, I can’t believe I caused this. I never meant to cause it.

“I’ve caused parents to have to bury their children, which has been my biggest nightmare all my life – and I’ve done it to so many families.”

Button was shaking as he vanished into the cells, where he will remain until at least 2048.

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