SYDNEY - Police in the Australian state of New South Wales (NSW) said on Monday that a 58-year-old driver will face court on Tuesday after being charged over a wedding bus crash that killed 10 passengers in the state's Hunter Region.
"He was charged with 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death - drive manner dangerous, and negligent driving (occasioning death). The Maitland man was refused bail to appear at Cessnock Local Court tomorrow," NSW Police Force said in a statement.
Just after 11:30 p.m. local time on Sunday, emergency services were called to the roundabout on Wine Country Drive near the Hunter Expressway off-ramp at Greta, following reports of a coach having rolled.
Police confirmed that there were 36 people on the bus at the time, with 10 passengers declared deceased and a further 25 passengers transported to hospital via helicopter and road.
While attending a second press conference of the day, NSW Police Force Acting Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman said that some patients have already been treated and discharged from the hospital.
"It's my understanding that at the wedding and indeed on the bus are people from a number of areas, both local and from the Singleton LGA, but some from Sydney and perhaps Queensland and Victoria," said Chapman.
She also revealed some details about the "fairly frantic scene" that police, firefighters, and paramedics were called to last night.
"Emergency responders were able to smash the front windscreen of the bus in order to pull some people or assist some people out of the bus," said Chapman. "A number of passengers we were able to extract through the front windscreen of the bus and then deal with those in terms of that triage process with New South Wales ambulance."
NSW Police Force Commissioner Karen Webb told reporters that the bus has just been righted from its side in the afternoon.
She noted that the vehicle could seat up to 54 people. "Whether they were actually wearing seatbelts or not, or whether it was fitted with seatbelts, certainly all of that will come under scrutiny," Webb added.
The NSW Ministry of Health sent a patient update to local media, which indicated that as of 2:00 p.m. local time, 15 passengers are remaining in the care of four hospitals across the state.
According to the update released by Australian Broadcasting Corporation, one patient is in a critical but stable condition, while the rest of them are in stable condition.
Data from the Australian Road Deaths Database showed that the Hunter Region crash is the worst bus accident in Australia in almost three decades.
The last tragedy that killed at least 10 people in the country took place at Boondall in Queensland in 1994. A bus with 50 passengers on board crashed and rolled on the Gateway Motorway on Oct. 24, which claimed the lives of 12 people and injured dozens. Enditem