Hunter Valley bus crash updates: two passengers still in intensive ...

Key events

NSW Premier Chris Minns tells ABC News there was an influx of trauma patients to John Hunter hospital in the middle of Sunday night.

I was at John Hunter Hospital yesterday speaking to the emergency department there that had to deal with obviously an influx of trauma patients in the middle of the night on Sunday night.

This is going to be a traumatic few weeks, perhaps even worse than the initial shock of learning of the disaster on Sunday night.

A NSW Health spokesperson has confirmed that, as of 6am today, one patient from the Hunter Valley bus crash is in a critical but stable condition.

Eight patients are in a stable condition at John Hunter Hospital, two patients are in a stable condition at Maitland Hospital, and two patients are in a stable condition at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. Another patient is in stable condition at Calvary Mater Newcastle.

“NSW Health extends its deepest sympathies to the families, friends and loved ones of those who died and were injured in a bus crash in the state’s Hunter region,” the spokesperson says.

Mental health support for community 'in a state of shock'

Cessnock City Council mayor Jay Suvaal says the community of the Hunter Valley bus crash are in a state of shock.

It’s still a bit of a state of shock, waking up yesterday to the horrible news that we saw. And today we’re now waking up to learn more about the victims involved and sadly knowing that quite a number of them are actually from our neighbouring community of Singleton.

So, that sort of makes it even more devastating.

We are a really close-knit community.

Suvaal tells ABC News Breakfast he has worked with the mayor of Singleton “to make sure that both of our communities are supported during this difficult time”.

Drop-in clinics are available at the Singleton youth venue from 9am, and at the Branxton Community Hall from 10am, today. Disaster recovery officers and chaplains will be providing mental health support, “which is really needed here”, Suvaal says.

“People will be able to just come in, that have been affected by this, and talk to someone.”

Floral tributes lie next to a road near the site of the bus crash in Cessnock. Photograph: Roni Bintang/Getty Images

Identifying victims to take ‘the next few days’

Superintendent David Waddell says the process of identifying victims will take “the next few days”:

We’ll work through that disaster victim identification process over the next few days. Our investigators, our family liaison officers, are speaking to the families and the victims. We are in contact.

That process will continue throughout the investigation and throughout the court process.

NSW police Superintendent David Waddell talks to the media on Tuesday morning. Photograph: Mike Bowers/The Guardian

Police to conduct mechanical investigation of bus

A crime scene investigation is under way at the site of the crash in Cessnock. Superintendent David Waddell confirms a mechanical investigation of the bus will be conducted today.

We’ll conduct a mechanical investigation of the vehicle today … The whole conditions will be examined as part of the investigation.

The vehicle was removed late last night.

A road closed sign near the site of the bus crash. Photograph: Roni Bintang/Getty ImagesVictims aged from 20s to 60s

Superintendent David Waddell confirms there were no children on the bus.

We’ve got people in the range from 20s to 60s, males to females, local and interstate, as you expect, when people travel far for a funeral – sorry, for a wedding.

Superintendent David Waddell describes the scene in Cessnock as traumatic:

Some of our police are visibly distraught. It was a very chaotic scene.

Obviously we have good processes and as the emergency services comes together we have worked well and it’s been a very thorough investigation and we’ll continue to do that. But at the time, the initial response, was quite chaotic for those attending police and other emergency services.

It’s a traumatic event for all the family, all the friends, from what was a wedding, where people come from wide and far.

'Minor to very serious injuries'

NSW police are addressing the press at Cessnock this morning.

Superintendent David Waddell confirms that 10 people are deceased – nine at the scene, and one later died in hospital.

“I see there’s been speculation about the identity of those 10 persons,” Waddell says. “We cannot confirm the identity of those 10 victims.”

A total of 25 people were taken to hospital. 12 of those people have since been released. There are still have 14 in hospital. Two are in ICU. Two people at RPA have had surgeries.

“The injuries range from lacerations to breaks and fractures. There’s minor injuries to very serious injuries with two in ICU.”

NSW police Superintendent David Waddell holds a press conference outside Cessnock police station. Photograph: ABC

Jess Wishart and her two children came home early from their long weekend camping trip at Lake Liddell.

Wishart said it “just didn’t feel right” staying any longer after waking up to the news that 10 people had died in a wedding bus crash near their home town of Branxton.

Another local Georgia Bainbridge was up late on Sunday night watching a movie when she heard “all the sirens and all the commotion going on”.

“We don’t know who was involved in the accident, who’s hurt, who’s not, you know – but so many people are already reaching out to everyone, sending their love, sending condolences.”

Bainbridge and Wishart came to lay flowers on Monday afternoon at the roundabout where the crash occurred.

Read the full story from Natasha May here:

Premier: ‘Everyone was doing the right thing’ which adds to the devastation

More from the NSW premier, Chris Minns, on Sunrise:

The organisers of this wedding did exactly the right thing. They had a destination wedding, they had a bus on hand so people wouldn’t drink and drive or be tempted to drink and drive. Everyone was doing the right thing here and many people have lost their lives.

I think that adds to the devastation that people are feeling this morning.

Minns says the tight-knit communities of Singleton and Cessnock are “going to need a hand from the state and the community”.

An emergency response centre for counselling is being set up in Singleton, and trauma counsellors and NSW Health workers will be at the centre from 9am this morning.

“… Many people have lost their lives and this is a terrible accident in a community that’s generally known as a place of happiness and joy, the Hunter Valley.”

'Trauma that will last', premier says

The NSW premier Chris Minns addresses the Hunter Valley bus crash on Sunrise this morning:

Certainly we haven’t seen it in many decades in NSW and it’s a trauma that will last, unfortunately.

Minns describes “severe trauma in Greta and Cessnock yesterday afternoon”.

He says some emergency service workers first on the scene had been working from midnight, and had been asked to go home by their commanders but they weren’t leaving until the job had been completed.

That won’t surprise many people, they know exactly what our firefighters, ambulance officers and police officers are made of.

Mitchell Gaffney and Maddy Edsell had a “beautiful ceremony”, hours before a bus carrying weddings guests who attended overturned on the Hunter expressway.

Read the full report by Christopher Knaus and Caitlin Cassidy here:

Good morning

After Sunday night’s tragic wedding bus crash in the Hunter Valley, stunned locals are still anxiously waiting for details of how the accident occurred and official confirmation of who was among the victims.

The driver of the bus, a 58-year-old man from Maitland, will appear in court in Cessnock this morning charged with 10 counts of causing death by dangerous driving. The Guardian will be in court and will have the details as they emerge.

We are also expecting a police press conference within the next few hours with the latest updates.

In the meantime, here is an explainer with what we know so far.