Hunter Valley Wedding Bus Crash Survivors Demand Change

Three years after the devastating Hunter Valley wedding bus crash that claimed 10 lives and left many others with life-altering injuries, survivors are calling for change.

The crash, which occurred on a winter's night in June 2023, has left an indelible mark on the families of the victims and the community at large.

A Night of Joy Turns to Tragedy

Sharyn and Jason Junkeer were among the wedding guests who boarded a bus to return to their accommodation after a joy-filled celebration in the Hunter Valley. The bus, driven by 58-year-old Brett Button, veered out of control on a roundabout near Greta, tipped onto its side, and smashed into a crash barrier.

In the chaotic moments after the crash, Jason Junkeer's eyes latched onto his wife Sharyn's pink jacket, the fluffy one she bought especially for the wedding. Sharyn's motionless body was half inside, half outside the overturned bus and Jason, who had been thrown into the windscreen, decided he had to exit the mangled wreck to help her.

"We need to step in and speak up and prevent these things from happening again," Jason tells us. "There's been some catastrophic errors in judgement."

A Survivor's Story

Sharyn Junkeer described how she searched for help in the dark after the chaos of the bus crash. She told a rescuer: "I think there's something really wrong with my legs and my back." The man reached for Sharyn's arms and, with "superhuman strength", pulled her out.

Sharyn had to learn to walk again after breaking her back and pelvis, and she is still recovering from a severe hip injury.

"That was a very powerful moment when we both realised that we had escaped," Sharyn says.

Calls for Accountability

The Junkeers, along with other survivors and families of the victims, believe that a failure to stop Button driving, despite reason to do so, and other systemic failures, are also to blame for the tragedy.

Leanne Mullen, who lost her 26-year-old daughter Rebecca in the crash, said: "The crash was a result of a perfect storm of mistakes, perfect storm of a lack of accountability, system failures, processes that don't work properly and a whole mismatch of agencies that aren't working together."

The NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) report found that Button was unable to negotiate the right-hand corner at 56.48km/h, the speed the bus was travelling in the moments before it tipped. The report found a speed above 47km/h was likely to lead to a rollover.

Button had taken more than his prescribed dose of the opioid tramadol, which he was using to relieve back pain.