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Heroic first responders smashed the windscreen of a toppled bus to free victims before using specialist equipment to partially lift the vehicle to rescue those trapped underneath following a horrific crash that claimed the lives of ten wedding guests.
A bus ferrying around 40 people from a wedding venue in the Hunter Valley, NSW, to their accommodation in nearby Singleton crashed and overturned at a roundabout around 11.30pm on Sunday.
Ten people have died and 15 are currently in hospital, with one victim currently fighting for their life. Police said no children were on board.
Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman said brave first responders ‘smashed’ the front windscreen to pull to safety those that were able to walk.
‘As you can imagine it was a fairly frantic scene,’ she said.
‘A number of passengers we were able to extract through the front wind screen of the bus and then deal with those in terms of that triage process with NSW ambulance.’
Fire and rescue officers also reportedly used airbags and timber blocks to lift the toppled bus to help free people trapped underneath.
The scene of the bus crash in Greta, 183km north of Sydney that has killed 10 wedding guests and left 21 others in hospital. One is currently fighting for their life
Photos from inside the reception show the newlyweds Maddy Edsall and Mitchell Gaffney (pictured, left) cutting into their cake as a live band plays in the background and their MC Alex Tigani speaks to the crowd (right). It is understood Mr Tigani is among the injured currently recovering at John Hunter Hospital
‘They actually used their tools to lift the bus up off a person,’ an emergency services source told the Sydney Morning Herald.
‘They used airbags to lift it and they put timber blocks underneath to lift the bus.’
It is unclear whether the person who was pulled form under the bus is among those who died from their injuries or whether they are currently in hospital.
Daily Mail Australia has contacted Fire and Rescue NSW for comment.
The bus driver, a 58-year-old man, is currently under arrest at Cessnock Police Station and police say ‘charges are pending’.
He returned a negative alcohol tests but there are reports he was driving ‘erratically’ before the horror crash.
It is understood the area was blanketed in heavy fog at the time of the crash.
He had been driving around 40 guests from the Wandin Estate winery in the Hunter Valley where they had been attending Maddy Edsall and Mitchell Gaffney’s wedding ceremony to their accommodation in nearby Singleton.
The coach carrying 36 passengers was travelling from the Wandin Estate winery wedding venue in the Hunter Valley wine region (pictured) when it rolled at a roundabout currently under construction on Wine Country Drive near the Hunter Expressway off ramp in Greta, 12km away, at 11.30pm on Sunday
It is understood the area was blanketed in heavy fog at the time of the crash (pictured: first responders at the scene)
It is understood the newlyweds’ wedding MC, local reporter Alex Tigani, is among the injured currently recovering at John Hunter Hospital.
A woman who worked at the function last night told Daily Mail Australia there were about 100 people at the wedding.
‘It’s just horribly sad,’ she said. ‘For them to all be having so much fun last night then for this to happen.’
NSW Premier Chris Minns said: ‘Today is a day to hug someone you love, and to remember how precious life is.’
Chilling audio from the first responders reveals the horror of the scene.
‘Major incident declared,’ a first responder can be heard saying in a recording shared by Today. ‘We have a bus roll over. Multiple patients.’
‘At this stage we have identified seven, I repeat, seven code fours.’
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‘We have one red label patient whose injuries are severe. And unfortunately, we are expecting that is also going to code four.’
‘Code four’ refers to a fatality.
A police source added that the calls coming in overnight were ‘horrific’ and there were ‘limbs everywhere’.
A victim is wheeled away on a stretcher by a paramedic in the thick pre-dawn fog (pictured)
The bodies of those who have died have not yet been removed from the scene where the bus is still lying on its side.
Assistant Commissioner Tracy Chapman said there was ‘sufficient information’ for police to press charges on the bus driver who is currently under arrest in Cessnock Police Station where he is being interviewed by detectives.
‘He’s been the driver of a motor vehicle collision where there have been fatal injuries and there will be charges pending,’ Assistant Commissioner Chapman said.
She added: ‘It’s a tragic set of circumstances. The number of family members, but broader community, who will be impacted by this, you couldn’t count,’ she said.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said that people hire buses for weddings ‘in order to keep their guests safe’ which just added to the ‘unimaginable nature of this tragedy’.
‘All of us know the joy of going to a wedding, a chance to celebrate dear friends and family. They are some of the happiest times that you can have,’ he said.
‘For a joyous day like that in a beautiful place to end with such terrible loss of life and injury is so cruel and so sad and so unfair.’
Mr Albanese thanked the first responders.
‘The mental scars of this will not go away,’ said the Prime Minister.
‘They are there forever and we need to make sure that when the spotlight leaves the care doesn’t, for people who have witnessed this and for people who have experienced this tragedy firsthand,’ he said.
One attendee spoke of his disbelief after being told about the tragedy.
‘It was a nice day, a pretty good wedding… fairytale stuff really… and we went to come back and get drunk, and we got the news that there had been a crash, and we all started panicking,’ an attendee told 7NEWS.
A bus crash victim is treated by paramedics (pictured)
The 58-year-old bus driver is under arrest and police expect to lay charges later today
Police investigators were reportedly trying to understand how a bus could have rolled at the ‘large’ roundabout.
Peta Hughes, a local business owner in Branxton just slightly north of Greta said the roundabout where the bus crashed had been reduced to one lane due to construction work.
‘They’ve got barriers and the safety bollards and things up around there. It’s a 40km/h zone,’ she told News Breakfast.
But Federal MP Dan Repacholi said he did not see how the road being reduced to one lane could have been an issue.
‘We drive around the Hunter roads every day of the week. Those roads in that area are good roads. So I really can’t see that being an issue,’ he told News Breakfast.
NSW state member for Cessnock Clayton Barr said: ‘It was on a roundabout, the bus couldn’t have been doing any more than 20-30km/h.’
‘It’s an incredibly well-lit area, the road surface is terrific. It’s just a reminder of how fragile our lives are when we’re out on the road really. Simple things, small things.’
Source: | This article originally belongs to Dailymail.co.uk
