Haunting audio from the emergency response after 10 wedding guests were killed in a horror bus crash has surfaced.
Football players Maddy Edsell and Mitchell Gaffney tied the knot at Wandin Valley Estate in the Hunter Valley on Sunday (June 11) afternoon.
As their nuptials ended late at night, a coach was scheduled to take about 45 of their guests from the venue to Singleton - a town a 30-minute drive away - at around 11:30 PM.
However, approximately 17 minutes into the journey to guests' accommodation, the 2009 Volvo B7R rolled over on Wine Country Drive at Greta, New South Wales, and reportedly left ten people dead, while 25 others were injured and taken to hospital.
According to Daily Mail, the area was blanketed in heavy fog at the time of the collision and the roundabout on Wine Country Drive near the Hunter Expressway off-ramp in Greta, 12km away from the estate, was under construction. Ten people were killed, 11 were airlifted or taken to hospital while the remaining wedding guests were uninjured.
Emergency services called to the devastating scene were ambulances, NSW Fire and Rescue, NSW Rural Fire Service, police, and Highway Patrol. The publication revealed that a first responder said: "Major incident declared. We have a bus rollover. Multiple patients," on a Triple-0 call to fellow responders.
"At this stage, we have identified seven, I repeat, seven code fours," they continued. "We have one red-label patient whose injuries are severe. And unfortunately, we are expecting that is also going to code four."
"We have multiple red and orange label patients at this stage. I need all resources allocated to continue. I'm still trying to work out exactly how many patients I have here," they added.
"Code four" refers to a patient that has passed away, "red label" implies that a patient is in critical condition, while "orange label" means a patient in a severe condition.
Many more people are feared dead as authorities believe there could be more wedding guests trapped under the wreckage, per the outlet. The bodies of the deceased have not yet been removed from the crash, where the bus still remains on its side.
The most severely injured - including those with lost limbs - were taken to the region's largest trauma hospital, while several others were airlifted to a Sydney hospital for life-saving surgery. Ten others are at two different hospitals, with four of the 25 injured already discharged.
The bride and groom were high-profile footballers stars, with Gaffney playing Singleton Roosters while Edsell was an ever-present player for the Hunter Valley women's team before moving to Melbourne to link up with the Roosterettes.
Police officials revealed on Monday (June 12) that the 58-year-old bus driver named Brett Andrew Button has been charged with 10 counts of dangerous driving occasioning death, including drive manner dangerous, and negligent driving (occasioning death), as reported by News.com.au.
According to The Sun, the driver was taken to the hospital for mandatory drug and alcohol testing, which came back negative and sustained minor injuries.
Acting assistant commissioner Tracey Chapman said in a press conference that there was "sufficient information" for law enforcement to press charges on Button.
"He was the driver of a motor vehicle in which multiple fatalities have occurred and there will be charges pending," Chapman said, per Daily Mail. "It's a tragic set of circumstances, the number of family members, and wider community, who will be impacted by this, we couldn't count.
The driver has been denied bail and is set to appear in court on Tuesday (June 13).
