Survivors and family members shattered by the Hunter Valley wedding bus crash have vowed to continue the fight for reform after the company responsible for hiring the driver faced court.
Linq Buslines was convicted and fined $650,000 in Gosford Local Court for its inadequate recruitment processes, not managing and addressing overspeed in a timely manner, and its fatigue management.
Crash survivor Sharyn Junkeer spoke outside court after the sentence was handed down.
She had earlier read a harrowing victim impact statement about how she believed she was going to die when the bus rolled at Greta on June 11, 2023, killing 10 and injuring 25.
She spent seven weeks in hospital after suffering serious and life-long injuries.
"You can never put a monetary figure on a life," she said.
"Not that the judge was doing that specifically, but we know we have lost 10 lives, and now the fine has been handed down and it's hard to reconcile those two things ... no amount is ever enough in terms of a fine."
The company had admitted to exposing the public to the risk of death, serious injury or illness, for its failings between November 2022 and June 2023.
Mrs Junkeer said it was important that Judge Kirralee Perry had spoken of the bus company's failings in her judgment.
Judge Perry slammed the "reference check" a Linq Buslines manager carried out for Brett Button, who caused the deadly crash, as wholly inappropriate.
The company had not required Button, who had been stood down from a previous employer for his opioid painkiller dependency, to get a medical assessment or produce formal references and a driving record.
"I think that this story is not over," Mrs Junkeer said.
Her husband Jason Junkeer was hurt in the rollover and witnessed horrifying scenes that still haunt him.
The couple said the Office of Transport and Safety Investigations (OTSI) report into the bus crash had revealed further areas where the system had fallen down.
"They will be the next focus for us as well, definitely," Mr Junkeer said.
Matt Mullen lost his 26-year-old daughter, Singleton doctor Rebecca Mullen, in the crash. She was her parents' "sunshine".
He was devastated by the court outcome, including the severity of the charges that the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator (NHVR) proceeded with.
He and his wife Leanne said they would "rebuild and keep fighting".
"I don't feel like there is full justice," Mr Mullen said.
"The levels of the fines, in our eyes, it's a slap on the wrist."
Mr Mullen said the OTSI report had exposed the sequence of events that led to the Greta crash.
He vowed to continue standing up for Bec and making sure no other family had to be torn apart by tragedy the way his had been.
"There's a lot more to come as far as we are concerned, legally, even if we have to do it ourselves," he said.
The NHVR separately brought charges against company directors Christopher Fogg and Anthony Royle related to their failures to manage and address overspeed incidents in a timely manner.
They were convicted and fined $12,000 each.
The charges the company and directors faced carried fine-only penalties.
NHVR's executive director of statutory compliance Paul Alsbury said the matter sent an important message to executives across the heavy vehicle industry.
"Businesses must ensure, so far as is reasonably practicable, the safety of their transport activities and eliminate or minimise risks to the public," he said.
"Executives also have a personal responsibility to exercise due diligence and understand how safety risks are being identified and managed within their business."
Two Linq Buslines managers will face court at a later date.
