{"id":869375,"date":"2026-08-26T19:32:14","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869375\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T19:32:14","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T19:32:14","slug":"company-directors-convicted-for-hiring-driver-of-hunter-valley-wedding-bus-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/869375\/","title":{"rendered":"Company directors convicted for hiring driver of Hunter Valley wedding bus crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Survivors of a horror crash<\/a> have detailed the life-changing effects as a court found a bus company and its directors failed to properly vet a drug-affected driver.<\/p>\n

Ten mostly young wedding guests were killed and another 25 injured when a bus driven by Brett Andrew Button<\/a> rolled over at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley in 2023.<\/p>\n

\"Brett<\/p>\n

Brett Button was sentenced to 32 years in prison with a non-parole period of 24 years.\u00a0Photo by Roni Bintang \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n

Sentencing proceedings against the company that employed Button – Linq Buslines – and two of its directors took place in Gosford Local Court on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

Linq directors Christopher Terrence Fogg, 57, and Anthony John Royle, 53, pleaded guilty to heavy vehicle law breaches by failing to uphold their duty of care, having employed Button in a compromised state.<\/p>\n

The two men were convicted and fined $12,000 each and the now-defunct company was fined a total of $650,000.<\/p>\n

Button is serving a 32-year prison sentence for his role in the crash<\/a>, as he was under the influence of opioid painkiller Tramadol and driving too fast at the time.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Judge Kirralee Perry denied the defence arguments that the offences were less serious because employment policies were in place but simply not followed when hiring Button.<\/p>\n

\u201cDirectors cannot put their hands over their ears and rely on a policy,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

Judge Perry found the company and its directors placed the community at risk of death for seven months while Button was driving for Linq.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Button) had previously been employed by another company and had been stood down after they received a doctor\u2019s report that he had developed an opioid dependency,\u201d the judge said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere needs to be a higher level of due diligence when recruiting drivers of heavy vehicles.\u201d<\/p>\n

The tearful parents of crash victim Rebecca Mullen outlined continuing grief at losing their beloved daughter.<\/p>\n

The Singleton woman had been offered a position as a rural GP and, with her fiance, had posted out wedding invites only days before she was killed.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Rebecca) wanted to care for and help the people of a community similar to that in which she had been raised,\u201d father Matthew Mullen said.<\/p>\n

\u201cHer funeral was a testament to how many lives she was able to touch in just 26 years,\u201d mother Leanne Mullen said in court.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

Ten mostly young wedding guests were killed and another 25 injured when a bus driven by Brett Andrew Button rolled over at a roundabout in Greta in the NSW Hunter Valley in 2023.\u00a09News<\/p>\n

Mr Mullen said the consequences for the driver were of little comfort to his grieving family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI cannot understand how systems and processes supposed to protect the passengers and Bec did not prevent (Button) getting behind the wheel,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Two surviving crash victims gave emotional accounts of the long-lasting physical and mental toll the crash has taken.<\/p>\n

Former L\u2019Oreal executive Jason Junkeer spoke of how an acquired brain injury from the crash led to him losing the job of his dreams.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy body still behaves as though something is about to go wrong … crowded and noisy places take real effort,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

His wife Sharon spent seven weeks in hospital after being dragged along the bitumen after the crash when the window she was sitting next to shattered.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy nose was broken, my left ear and face required 57 stitches, tendons were severed down to the bone in my second and third fingers,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything in my world changed forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outside court, the Junkeers said they were pleased with the convictions recorded as it would be a permanent sign of how much the crash had impacted them and the other victims.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Framed photo\u2019s of some of the bus crash victims during a public memorial service honouring the 10 lives lost.\u00a0AAP Image\/Dean Lewins<\/p>\n

In July, the NSW Office of Transport Safety Investigations released a report detailing serious systemic failings in both bus regulation and passenger behaviour that contributed to the crash.<\/p>\n

Chief investigator Jim Modrouvanos said not wearing seatbelts on coaches was a serious cultural problem across the community.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Survivors of a horror crash have detailed the life-changing effects as a court found a bus company and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":869376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-869375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=869375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/869375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/869376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=869375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=869375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=869375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}