Hunter Valley bus crash survivors demand real reform

In June 2023, Sharyn and Jason Junkeer survived the Hunter Valley wedding bus crash that killed 10 people. Three years later, they're speaking publicly for the first time, with a blunt message: a guilty plea and a jail term aren't enough. They want the safety failures that put a drug-dependent driver behind the wheel fixed for good.

The bus carried wedding guests through New South Wales' Hunter Valley when it veered out of control on a roundabout near Greta, tipped onto its side and struck a crash barrier. Jason Junkeer was thrown into the windscreen. He climbed out to help his wife, then freed other passengers trapped by jammed seatbelts before passing out. When he woke, Sharyn was gone. She had climbed back inside and moved over seats toward a rescuer who'd opened the manhole exit. "I think there's something really wrong with my legs and my back," she told him. The crash dragged her across the bitumen on her hip "like a cheese grater"; her pelvis and lower back were broken. A skin graft took months to heal, and she needed rehabilitation to walk again. Jason has a brain injury and post-traumatic stress disorder, and hasn't returned to work. "I saw some things I wish I'd never seen," he said.

A Driver Who Slipped Through the Cracks

Driver Brett Button, then 58, received a 32-year jail sentence, with a non-parole period of 24 years, after pleading guilty to 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death and 25 other charges. He escaped with minor injuries. The NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations (OTSI) found he took more than his prescribed dose of tramadol, an opioid he used for back pain.

The warning signs appeared on paper well before the crash. Button went to a pain management clinic in 2022 as part of a WorkCover claim. A report noting "an opiate dependence disorder with features of vulnerability to addiction" went to his then employer, CDC NSW, which suspended him from driving in June 2022. He was due for an independent medical assessment before returning to work, but resigned that day and applied to Linq Buslines.

Then the system stopped talking to itself. The OTSI report found CDC NSW didn't tell Linq about Button's health issues because privacy legislation barred it from sharing a driver's health information without consent. During his six years at CDC, 12 complaints against Button had been upheld, but the company didn't pass them on either. No record shows that Transport for NSW (TfNSW) heard about his substance-misuse history from him, his GP or his former employer. In a recent court case against Linq, a judge called the company's reference check "flippant".

Tramadol isn't banned for bus drivers, though pilots can't take it, and train drivers must tell TfNSW if they do. The OTSI report said "there was no defined list of medications that commercial [bus] drivers within NSW were prohibited from taking or which were required to be declared." The prescribing doctor and the driver bore most responsibility for judging a drug's effect on driving.

Leanne Mullen, whose 26-year-old daughter Rebecca, a junior doctor, died in the crash, put it plainly: "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."

Penalties, Roads and Seatbelts

Linq Buslines, now defunct, paid a $650,000 fine in August after pleading guilty to breaching National Heavy Vehicle laws. Matt Mullen wasn't impressed. "I feel very strongly that the penalties are a slap on the wrist and really don't send a message out there to the bus industry of the importance of managing their drivers," he said.

The road itself also faces scrutiny. The elliptical Branxton interchange met standards, but the OTSI report found its oval shape created a tightening curve that demanded changes in speed and steering. Button couldn't negotiate the right-hand corner at 56.48km/h, the report found, and anything above 47km/h was likely to cause a rollover. No speed-reduction signs stood on his approach at the time. Authorities have since installed one some distance from the entry. John Gaffney, the groom's father and a road design engineer with decades of experience, said such designs need other ways to cut speed, including advanced rollover signage and a 40km speed limit on the approach. Austroads is revising its guidance on elliptical roundabouts.

Seatbelts add to the toll. Only six of the 35 passengers wore one. Button wore his belt but didn't tell passengers to buckle up, despite company protocols. The federal transport department has since approved requirements for audio and visual messages telling passengers to wear seatbelts, but the OTSI report said most buses would take about 25 years to comply. Sharyn and Jason didn't wear belts. "If more people were wearing them, then I think the outcome would have been different," Sharyn said.

Official Response

The NSW government accepted, or accepted in principle, all 21 recommendations relating to TfNSW; another 20 concern other authorities. TfNSW and the National Transport Commission are reviewing recommendations on safe medication management. NSW Roads Minister Jenny Aitchison supports adding a list of notifiable medications to TfNSW medical assessment forms and expects changes within the next 12 months. A "buckle up on buses" campaign launched across NSW in 2024.

Sharyn works in the pharmaceutical industry and wants compulsory reporting. "If someone in the medical profession knows that someone they're treating has an issue with alcohol or any drugs and they're driving buses or trucks, then they should have to report that somewhere," she said. She doesn't want attention to fade. "That's just too simplistic to look at it as just being a case against Mr Button. We want those other issues to be addressed and we want changes to happen and actually be implemented to protect all of us."

Why This Matters:

The Hunter Valley crash exposes a gap between individual blame and public responsibility. Button is in jail, but the OTSI findings describe a chain of missed handoffs: privacy rules blocked an employer from warning the next one, drivers had no list of medications to declare, complaints didn't travel with Button, and a roundabout design left drivers to manage a tightening curve without warning signs. Closing those gaps takes regulation and coordination between agencies, not just prosecution. Ministerial support and accepted recommendations offer a start, but survivors and families are pressing for delivery. The roughly 25-year seatbelt timeline shows how slowly reform can move. How quickly the government acts, and whether penalties like Linq's $650,000 fine deter other operators, will show whether officials apply the lessons of that night or let them fade.