The New South Wales premier, Chris Minns, is returning to the region at the centre of Australia’s deadliest crash in decades as the government mulls stricter seatbelt laws and the local community reels from the tragedy.
Ten people died in the crash after a wedding in the Hunter region on Sunday, including at least five members of the local Singleton Roosters football club. A further 13 people remain in hospital.
Friends and sporting clubs paid tribute to those still unaccounted for after the crash, including Rebecca Mullen, a junior doctor based at Calvary Mater hospital, and Nadene McBride and her daughter Kyah, footballers from nearby Singleton. Police said the people killed in the crash range in age from 20 to 60.
Police are still working to match deceased passengers with the identities of those who remain unaccounted for. It is understood this process could take several days.
On Wednesday Minns will meet with emergency service members and locals in the Hunter Valley, where the shock of the tragedy continues to sink in.
Locals gathered at Singleton’s football pitch on Tuesday evening to grieve club members killed in the crash. Many carried red flowers – the club’s colours.
Mitchell Gaffney and Maddy Edsell, whose wedding the bus passengers had been attending, also play football for the club.
Emily Suvaal, a member of the Legislative Council in NSW, said “people are really still in the early stages of processing this really tragic event”.
“Singleton is a small community and the people impacted in these really tragic events will have been known to many throughout the community and many of those families,” Suvaal said.
“The community is still struggling to process what’s going on. We’ll walk this journey with them as they need.”
Members of the community also laid flowers at the roundabout near the town of Branxton where the crash occurred. Many arrived silently, leaving with tears in their eyes.
Kane Symons, a local footballer and lifesaver, was among the victims remembered. Symons’ work colleagues left him flowers and a note: “Rest in Peace Kane. You will be greatly missed. Love all your work mates.”
Flowers left by the Cessnock ambulance crew were accompanied by a note that read: “Our thoughts and prayers are with all the family and friends affected by this incident. We are honoured and simultaneously horrified to have been involved in such a traumatic incident.”
The mayor of Singleton, Sue Moore, said the feelings in the community were still raw. “The community as a whole is probably coming to terms with it, although still in shock.”
“There are many of them that are in multiple clubs and multiple groups that if they don’t know someone in one, they know somebody in the other. Country town – that’s how things work.”
The bus driver, Brett Button, 58, was granted bail on Tuesday after appearing in court on 11 charges, including 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death. Police allege he was driving “too quick” for the conditions of the road.
The court heard evidence from some survivors alleging the driver engaged in “prolonged” unsafe behaviour and called out that passengers should “fasten your seatbelts” moments before he hit a bend and the bus tipped.
Questions have also turned to bus safety, with the premier flagging any legal changes recommended by investigators would be considered.
Although Minns declined to comment on the specifics of the crash, he was open to legal changes around seatbelts if the investigation showed they were needed.
“[If] there’s a recommendation made to us about law changes in relation to safety on buses or coaches or in cars and vans in NSW, we’ll of course take action,” he told the ABC on Tuesday.
The health minister, Ryan Park, said the emergency response would be reviewed before further recommendations about safety, including the use of seatbelts on busses, would be addressed.
“For an incident like this always, always there is a sense of what could be done better. I think the community would expect that of me. I think the community would expect that of anyone involved in this and that will certainly be the process going forward.”
