The bus driver responsible for a deadly crash in the NSW Hunter Valley last year, which killed 10 people, has admitted to being dependent on an opioid painkiller. Giselle Wakatama reports from Newcastle Court.
Category
đș
TVTranscript
00:00Brett Andrew Button gave evidence this morning as part of his sentencing submission for his
00:07defence team.
00:09He was fighting back tears and sobbing as he gave evidence.
00:12He said, I can't forgive myself knowing that parents had had to bury their children.
00:18He said, I've committed the ultimate sin.
00:20I wish I'd disappear.
00:22He said, how can you say sorry for something so horrible that he had caused?
00:28He was asked about his driving and he accepted that yes, he'd compared his driving on that
00:34night before the crash, that this will be like a rollercoaster, as well as saying, picking
00:39up again after this next bit is going to be fun.
00:42Now, as well, he was asked about his use of the opioid Tramadol.
00:48We were told that in his system, he'd taken more than the recommended dose.
00:53And indeed, he accepted today while giving evidence that he was impaired by that drug.
00:59But he said he'd been using this drug since 1994 and really didn't think about it in terms
01:04of it putting people at risk.
01:07He said, you know, if he'd known he had taken that medication and it would put people at
01:11risk that he wouldn't have.
01:13Again, he just sobbed while referring to, you know, the people whose lives had been
01:19shattered.
01:20He said that he expected that to be in the thousands.
01:23He said it's something that he just can never stop thinking about and said he was deeply
01:28sorry.
01:29Now, the Crown Prosecutor, Catherine Jeffries, said that, yes, there was remorse, but really
01:35that the judge, Roy Ellis, needed to take some caution in terms of him saying sorry
01:42and his level of remorse.
01:44And essentially, she called for a sentence reflecting the gravity of this, of a night
01:49that, you know, survivors and victims' families say is a night that will never end.