Brett Button who drove the bus in fatal Hunter Valley crash that killed 10 wedding guests will have to listen to up to 35 statements over three days from traumatised family members
Bus driver Brett Button will spend days in court listening to the impact Australia’s deadliest road crash in decades has had on the families of the dead and surviving victims.
Button was behind the wheel of a bus when it overturned while going through a roundabout, killing 10 people and injuring others returning from a wedding in the United States. N.S.W Hunter region in June 2023.
The 59-year-old pleaded guilty in May to 10 counts of dangerous driving causing death, nine counts of dangerous driving causing serious bodily harm and 16 counts of angry driving causing bodily harm.
Prosecutors controversially dropped manslaughter charges in exchange for the guilty pleas, angering the families of some of those killed.
Bus driver Brett Button (pictured) will spend days in court hearing statements from relatives of ten people killed in horror crash
Judge Roy Ellis has set aside three days in September for Button to hear as many as 35 impact statements on behalf of the victims.
His lawyers tried to have him appear via audiovisual link from Shortland Correctional Center in Cessnock for at least the first day of the sentencing hearing.
“I think he should be here,” Judge Ellis told Newcastle District Court on Thursday, ordering Button to be brought before the court for the three-day sentencing hearing that started on September 9.
Prosecutors and Button’s lawyers will prepare written submissions to the court before the end of August.
The judge will pronounce the sentence at a later date.
Victim impact statements are a typical part of the criminal trial, giving those affected by a crime the opportunity to tell the court about the immediate and ongoing impact on their lives as a judge considers a sentence.
The sheer number of people affected by the Hunter bus tragedy will mean the court will need days to hear their evidence.
Button pleads guilty to 35 charges related to the crash (pictured) and will hear up to 35 impact statements from devastated family members
There were no formal commemoration events on Tuesday to mark the one-year anniversary of the fatal crash, but many people left flowers at the site – an inconspicuous roundabout on the route from the Wandin Valley Estate wedding venue to the town of Singleton.
The municipality has built a permanent monument for the victims.
Following the crash, the NSW Government’s Bus Industry Taskforce recommended a national campaign to promote the importance of wearing seat belts and consider an 80km/h limit for buses with standing passengers.
It has also called for technological improvements in vehicles, while another report is in preparation focusing on psychometric measurements for drivers and mandatory drug and alcohol testing.
