Less than 24 hours after celebrating what was supposed to be the most magical day of her life, Madeleine Edsell was “kicking down the door” in a desperate attempt to visit the site that claimed the lives of her friends and family.
A relative of the bride who had just married the love of her life has detailed Edsell’s reaction when she found out the bus transporting her loved ones to their accommodation after her wedding had rolled, fatally injuring 10 people.
“The bride was pretty much kicking down the door trying to get in the car,” Edsell’s cousin Kynan Stanford told 7 News.
“(She said), ‘Get me there, I need to go’ and we were like, ‘No, you don’t need to go.’”
Hours earlier Edsell had exchanged vows with her now-husband Mitchell Gaffney at their “fairytale” wedding ceremony at Wandin Valley Estate.
As their celebrations went into the night, dozens of guests boarded a Linq Buslines 2009 Volvo B7R coach fitted with 57 seats including seatbelts.
But 17 minutes into the drive just after 11:30 p.m., the bus rolled onto its side at a roundabout at Wine Country Drive near the Hunter Expressway off-ramp.
Ten passengers died in the incident which left another 25 wedding guests hospitalized. It’s understood at least 36 passengers were aboard the bus when it crashed.
Those that lost their lives in the incident were later identified as Andrew and Lynan Scott, a husband and wife from Singleton; Zachary Bray from Byron Bay; Angus Craig from Queensland; and Tori Cowburn and Rebecca Mullen from Singleton.
Kane Symons who was born in Victoria but moved to Singleton and Darcy Bulman from Melbourne also remain unaccounted for.
Among those injured were members of the local Singleton Roosters football club, which both Edsell and Gaffney attended as senior players.
Members of a local cricket club, along with their partners, were also among the injured.
Emergency services, including ambulance, NSW Fire and Rescue, NSW Rural Fire Service, police and Highway Patrol rushed to the site and were met with horrifying scenes.
Despite the foggy conditions, which may have contributed to the crash, emergency services responded quickly with helicopters also landing nearby to provide medical assistance.
The driver of the bus – a 58-year-old man identified as local Brett Button – was taken to the hospital under police guard for mandatory testing and assessment.
He was later transferred to Cessnock Police Station where he was charged with ten counts of dangerous driving occasioning death – driving in a dangerous manner, and negligent driving (occasioning death).
The Maitland man appeared at Cessnock Local Court on Tuesday where he was granted strict conditional bail that will prohibit him from entering the driver seat of a car, subject him to a curfew and deny him contact with police witnesses.
Magistrate Robyn Richardson told the court Button’s own mental health had also suffered as a result of the incident and subsequent charges, with the matter unlikely to go to trial until 2024.
A former crash scene investigator said the passengers sitting on the left side of the bus would have sustained catastrophic injuries in the crash from coming into contact with the road surface and guard railing.
Retired Victoria Police officer Peter Bellion said the incident highlighted how fragile humans were after highlighting several scenarios which could have contributed to fatal injuries the ten victims sustained.
“It’s a typical heavy vehicle rollover where a heavy vehicle has gone into some sort of turn too fast, it’ll tip over the outside lip,” Bellion said.
“Obviously the passenger side is coming into contact with the road surface and also the guard railing, they’re sources of contact for anybody inside the vehicle.
“But then you also have the fact that anybody that’s on the driver’s side unrestrained, they could also fall to the passenger side and end up with some pretty bad if not fatal injuries.”
He also added that the fatality rate of a passenger increased the more speed a vehicle was going at the time it came to a sudden stop.
“Effectively if you look at vulnerability of human impact tolerance, a sudden stop at 19 miles per hour for a human being unrestrained will result in about 15 percent fatality rate,” he said.
“For a sudden stop of about 25 mph that can result in about a 50 percent fatality rate, and by the time that gets up to 31 mph, 85 percent would be a fatal outcome.”
Bellion’s comments come after Acting Assistant NSW Police Commissioner David Waddell told reporters on Tuesday police alleged the driver entered the roundabout in a “manner that was inconsistent with the conditions.”
“Obviously, the speed was too quick for him to negotiate that roundabout, causing the vehicle to fall onto its left side and cause those injuries,” he said.
On Monday 15 passengers were still in hospital, with most receiving care at John Hunter Hospital.
One patient at the hospital is in a stable but critical condition.
Eight are in a stable condition, with two patients transferred from Maitland Hospital.
There are three patients in a stable condition at Maitland.
Two patients are in a stable condition in the Royal Prince Alfred and one at Calvary Mater Newcastle.
Police are urging anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000, while concerned family members are advised to contact Cessnock Police Station.
