Bus driver Brett Button will spend days in court hearing the impact Australia’s deadliest road crash in decades has had on the families of those killed and surviving victims.
Button was behind the wheel of a bus when it overturned while traveling through a roundabout, killing 10 people and injuring others returning from a wedding in the Hunter region of New South Wales in June 2023.
The 59-year-old pleaded guilty in May to 10 counts of dangerous driving causing death, nine of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and 16 of furious 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 evidence from relatives of 10 people who died during a horror crash.
Judge Roy Ellis has set aside three days in September for Button to hear up to 35 impact statements on behalf of victims.
His lawyers sought to have him appear via audio-visual 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 appear in court for the three-day sentencing hearing starting on September 9.
Prosecutors and Button’s lawyers will prepare written submissions to the court before the end of August.
The judge will hand down the sentence at a later date.
Victim impact statements are a typical part of the sentencing process, giving those affected by a crime the opportunity to inform the court of the immediate and ongoing impacts on their lives while the judge considers a sentence.
The sheer number of people affected by the Hunter bus tragedy will mean it will take days for the courts to hear their evidence.
Button pleads guilty to 35 charges relating to crash (pictured) and will hear up to 35 impact statements from devastated relatives
No formal memorial event marked the first anniversary of Tuesday’s fatal crash, but many people left flowers at the site – a nondescript roundabout on the route from the Wandin Valley Estate wedding venue to the town of Singleton.
The city council has built a permanent monument in memory of the victims.
Following the accident, the NSW Government’s Bus Industry Taskforce recommended a statewide 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 underway focusing on psychometric measurements for drivers and mandatory drug and alcohol testing.
