A survivor of the Hunter Valley bus crash which killed 10 people and injured 25 others has claimed driver Brett Button ignored passengers’ pleas to slow down and seemed to instead, accelerate.
Jennifer Warren told the Newcastle District Court during Button’s sentence hearing how he was showing off before the bus tipped over at a roundabout.
“The bus driver was driving recklessly and going too fast, choosing to ignore the yelling and pleading of the passengers asking him to slow down,” Warren told the court on Tuesday.
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“Not only did he ignore the pleas, but it felt as though he was accelerating as we approached the roundabout.”
She said this was a tragedy that should never have happened.
“(Button) could have prevented all this loss and pain if he had listened to the pleas of his passengers to slow down but he chose not to. I am no longer the wife, mother or sister I once was because Brett Button wanted to show off.”
Another survivor, Drew El Moussalli, had earlier asked Judge Roy Ellis to order Button to show some respect and look at him during his testimony.
El Moussalli claimed Button had been bowing his head and not daring to look at the families of those killed or the survivors.
“It reminded me of the night where he killed 10 people and had his hands in his pockets, while I had my shirt covering one of my best mate’s heads as he was bleeding to death,” El Moussalli said.
“My recurring nightmares are a dark reminder of you,” he told Button.
“I get flashbacks of you showing no remorse or care. I regularly get woken up thinking I’m trapped in your bus of hell.”
Sharyn Junkeer told how she and her husband Jason Junkeer were sitting in the two front seats of the bus.
“The driver approached the roundabout at speed. It did not feel as if he applied the brakes at all,” Junkeer said.
“As the wheels began to lift on the right-hand side of the bus, I knew that it was going to tip and I was certain at that moment that I was about to die.
“The sensation of falling sideways and being completely powerless was terrifying.
“When the side of the bus hit the road, the window I was seated against smashed.”
Junkeer, who suffered multiple fractures to her pelvis and lower back, said it was a miracle she survived.
Jason Junkeer told the court he felt sheer terror and panic as the bus began to tip over.
“I’m not sure how long I lost consciousness for but I eventually woke up with a mix of shock, confusion, pain and relief that I was awake somehow completely covered in glass, metal and debris,” he said.
“I just thought ‘I have to find Sharyn and get out now’.”
He remembered seeing his wife lying face down and appearing lifeless before noticing a slight movement in her left arm.
“I floated in and out of consciousness … I tried to help others when I could,” he said.
“My legs gave way and I passed out again. I came to again and this time I couldn’t see Sharyn. I had to get out and find her.”
Junkeer found his wife lying face up on the footpath barely conscious.
He described how he now had debilitating flashbacks of the “horrendous images, sounds and events I witnessed that night”.
Button, 59, has pleaded guilty to 10 charges of dangerous driving causing death, nine counts of dangerous driving causing grievous bodily harm and 16 counts of causing bodily harm by wanton driving.
Button lost control of the bus taking 35 wedding guests from the Wandin Valley Estate to Singleton about 11.30pm on June 11, 2023, after taking the roundabout at Greta too fast in thick fog.
The 10 people who died in the crash were: Darcy Bulman, Nadene and Kyah McBride, Kane Symons, Andrew and Lynan Scott, Zach Bray, Angus Craig, Tori Cowburn, and Rebecca Mullen.
Button will give evidence in his defence on Wednesday.
