Hunter Valley bus crash: Wedding bus crash survivor’s angry demand to driver Brett Button as they come face to face in court

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

Brett Button, 59, appeared in Newcastle District Court on Tuesday after previously pleading guilty to 19 charges including dangerous driving causing death and grievous bodily harm.

Button was returning guests from a wedding reception at the Wandin Valley Estate, two hours north of Sydney, to Singleton on June 11, 2023 when the bus overturned at a roundabout near Greta.

When he gave his statement after a day and a half of interrogations, one survivor demanded that Button look at him before he would tell him that he had locked him in a “bus from hell.”

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

The families here don’t deserve to be here.

‘My future has been destroyed by 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 significant responsibility, I believe he was failed by systems that fail us all.”

“The accident was a series of huge gaps, loopholes and a lack of communication and information sharing between agencies, all of which led to this tragedy,” she said.

Other survivors told of the injuries they would suffer for the rest of their lives as a result of the crash.

One woman said she now suffered chronic pain, including a permanent tilt of the head and an inability to fully open her mouth, leading to a level of social isolation she described in court as “suffocating.”

Another survivor described how, after receiving more than 50 stitches, he struggled to explain to new friends how he got the stitches and how he felt guilty about the shame of having survived the crash.

All the survivors who testified on Tuesday described scenes of “carnage” after the crash, from shocked and seriously injured passengers to the bodies of the dead.

Earlier on Tuesday, Steve Symons was forced to hold back tears as he told Button how his son Kane had taken a “second chance” after an injury he suffered as a child was “cruelly” taken away from him.

“Kane’s death has devastated our lives. It has left an irreparable 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 a keen sense of how precious life is and embraced every moment of it. To lose him now after being 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 colon cancer. His mother, Jackie, said he “always chose the right path” but failed to come home on June 11.

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

‘He and his friends did as they were told: they had a plan B. They trusted the bus driver to get them home safely, but my son, who did everything right, still didn’t come home.

‘Zac was given the death penalty, and his family and friends were given life sentences.’

At least 35 people are expected to testify during a three-day hearing that began Monday morning under the direction of Judge Roy Ellis.

Among those testifying on Monday was Graham McBride, whose wife Nadene and daughter Kyah died in the crash. He told Button that without his girls “I have no life anymore”.

“My family tree has been chopped down. A father should never have to attend the funeral of his entire family … The most precious thing in my life has been mercilessly taken away,” 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 had “stopped being about living, it was about surviving”.

“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 of his partner, Ms Bulman, as he fought back tears.

In his opening statement, Judge Ellis said the sentence was “almost unprecedented, as never before have so many people been killed in a road traffic accident”.

Judge Ellis told the court that emotions would run high during the three-day trial and that the reams of victim impact statements that had to be read out loud would be “disturbing”.

The seasoned judge is expected to deliver the verdict against Button on Wednesday. Some 60 people are expected to attend on behalf of the victims and extra facilities are being set up for the large number of media.

It comes more than a year after the horrific crash that hit the communities of Hunter Valley and Singleton.

Andrew Scott, 35, and his 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, died in the crash.

The incident quickly became one of the worst fatal road accidents ever in the state – and in Australia. At one point, Button was facing a staggering 89 charges, including 10 counts of manslaughter.

Ultimately, prosecutors agreed to a plea deal that resulted in the manslaughter charges being dropped, angering the families. Button is being held in custody pending sentencing.