Hundreds of people gathered at North Rothbury last night to hold each other tight, and remember the victims of the horrific bus crash at Greta.
A local resident organised the gathering as an opportunity for people to come together from the local community and further afield, to share a hug or a cup of tea and show their support for everyone involved in the crash that cruelly took ten lives and left 25 injured.
The Red Cross was on hand with the Salvation Army and the NSW disaster recovery chaplaincy network to talk to anyone who needed it.
Tributes of flowers, teddy bears, candles and cards were laid to remember the six Singleton locals and four others who died – the tributes were all taken to the memorial on Wine Country Drive that continues to grow.
When the families are ready, they will decide what happens to those tributes and will receive a copy of all of the messages that have been left.
Chaplain Paul O’Keefe from the NSW Disaster recovery chaplaincy network, said the grief he has seen the last few days had been “overwhelming” and the heartache of the loss was the worst he’d seen.
Meantime, NSW Police have issued infringement and defect notices to the bus company at the centre of the tragedy.
Specialist police including the Crash Investigation Unit, with investigators from the National Heavy Vehicle operator attended Linq Buslines depots at East Gresford and Wyong yesterday to conduct a heavy-vehicle compliance audit.
During the audit, twenty buses were inspected with seven defect notices were issued, including one major defect, for a cracked windscreen, oil leaks, inoperative seat belts and vehicle lights and insecure seats.
As a result, Linq Buslines was issued two infringement notices for permit use of heavy vehicle contravene standard and use heavy vehicle with defective seating.
A spokesperson for the company said “the one major defect identified in the fleet has been rectified and the minor defects are being rectified in accordance with the timelines set by the National Heavy Vehicle Regulator”.