The driver responsible for the deadly Hunter Valley crash in New South Wales acted strangely hours before his bus overturned, killing 10 people and injuring 25.
Brett Button, 59, boasted that he could do ‘doughnuts’ moments before the coach overturned on a roundabout near Greta Township on June 11, 2023.
He had moved the carriage doors before leaving them open while taking guests from a wedding at Wandin Valley Estate to nearby Singleton.
Button told his passengers that “this is going to be fun,” according to an agreed statement of facts that was formally filed in court Thursday.
The document, signed by Button and his lawyers, also details how he told guests his blood alcohol level had dropped after reaching 0.4 a few days earlier.
Brett Button, 59, bragged to guests about his reduced blood alcohol level and how he could make ‘doughnuts’ in a signed agreement of facts that will be presented in court on Thursday.
The deadly crash on June 11, 2023 killed 10 people (pictured) and injured 25 more
Experts say Button was driving at 56.48km/h while accelerating on the roundabout “falling into the upper end of normal driving and towards aggressiveness” despite the bus’s lean threshold being 31km/h.
Collision reconstruction expert Gavin Lennon said the rates of braking and acceleration he applied were “excessive, unnecessary and aggressive” considering the location was a roundabout rather than a straight road.
According to the facts, Button played music and ‘encouraged a party atmosphere’ with several guests tightening their seatbelts due to his driving.
He said “if you like this corner, you’re going to like this one” and played down concerns that he was going too fast, telling anxious passengers “oh, it’s nothing.”
Button became irritated when a car overtook the bus as it passed an Ampol gas station and said something to the effect of “fuck this, screw this”.
The document also states that Button was under the influence of an excessive amount of Tramadol, an opioid pain reliever, at the time of the accident.
Almost three hours after the accident, Button had 0.62 mg/L of tramadol in his system.
Documents state he told officers he had taken 250mg of Tramadol on the day of the accident, however a forensic clinical pharmacologist said the blood concentration recorded strongly suggested he had taken 400mg, almost double that amount.
The bus flipped on its side after Button lost control while transporting guests to the wedding.
Passengers said the overturned bus looked like a war zone with “body parts everywhere”
The facts indicated that there was no evidence that Button told Linq Buses, the company he drove for, that he was using Tramadol despite mandatory self-reporting laws.
Button also agreed that the drug can cause respiratory depression, euphoria, drowsiness, mental confusion, instability, impairment of memory and visual functions, comprehension, attention, problem solving and decision making.
The document also details how the bus quickly became a “war zone” after it overturned and crashed into an Armco guardrail.
“Several of them screamed as they tried to locate their loved ones in the chaos and helped other injured people off the bus,” he said.
“They describe seeing ‘dead bodies and body parts everywhere’ and ‘horrific images of what was on the ground.'”
Button told officers he had not been looking at speed before the crash.
Hours after the crash, Button told officers at Singleton District Hospital that he had turned off the cruise control and accelerated while going down a hill.
“I didn’t speed up going back up the hill to slow down,” he told them.
“I didn’t brake when entering the roundabout because I was already going quite slowly, I have driven on this road many times.”
He said he hadn’t been looking at the speed, but assumed he had been doing 30km/hour.
Button pleaded guilty to dangerous driving causing the death of Darcy Bulman, 30, Rebecca Mullen, 26, Zachary Bray, 29, Andrew Scott, 35, and his wife Lynan Scott, 33. years, Tori Cowburn, 29, Angus Craig, 28, Nadene. McBride, 52, his daughter Kyah McBride, 22, and Kyah’s partner Kane Symons, 21.
He appeared at Newcastle District Court on Thursday morning.
Dressed in green prison uniform, Mr Button formally pleaded guilty to each death via AVL from Shortland Prison, solemnly pleading “guilty, your honour” to each charge.
Mr Button was seen looking at his hands as he formally pleaded guilty to all 25 charges, which also included 15 counts of causing grievous bodily harm.
