The latest on the fatal Hunter Valley wedding bus crash
An investigation has been launched into a fatal bus crash that claimed the lives of 10 wedding guests in the New South Wales Hunter Valley region late on Sunday night.
Brett Andrew Button, the 58-year-old driver of the bus which crashed in the Hunter Valley, killing 10 people, has this morning been granted bail.
Button made a brief appearance before Cessnock Local Court this morning, where a magistrate imposed strict bail conditions on him after saying there was a strong prosecution case for the 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death.
He was seen leaving Cessnock Police Station wearing a black hoodie and carrying a Coles supermarket shopping bag.
He entered a waiting car, as a media pack surrounded him.
Acting Assistant Commissioner David Waddell said Button, from Maitland, was facing a range of “very serious” charges relating to the tragic deaths of guests who had spent that day celebrating a wedding.
“He entered that roundabout driving in a manner that was inconsistent with the conditions,” Waddell alleged.
“The speed was too quick for him to negotiate that roundabout, causing the vehicle to fall onto its left side and cause those injuries.”
Police had investigated the bus at the scene, leaving many officers “visibly distraught”, Waddell said.
Twenty-five people were rushed to hospital with a range of injuries. There are still 14 people in hospital, two in intensive care.
Waddell described the ICU patients as “critical but stable”.
