Emergency services raced to the scene of a mini bus crash in the Hunter Valley, where a van full of wedding guests rolled 100 metres down an embankment, injuring six people, including a wheelchair user who was trapped inside the wreckage.
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The call for help came in just after 10.30am on Wednesday July 30. Newcastle Herald understands a mini bus carrying six people left the roadway, before "rolling multiple times" down a nearby embankment.
The incident occurred on Mount View Road at Mount View.
Police shut down the scene as emergency crews worked to free the people from the van. Paramedics, police, NSW Fire and Rescue and Rural Fire Service were all on scene at 11am.
It is understood one person was ejected from the vehicle during the crash. Four others were able to be freed but a wheelchair user who was in the back of the van owned by a Cessnock Branxton Taxis company, was trapped in the vehicle. The sixth person had to be extricated by emergency crews. Eight members of the Cessnock District Rescue Squad were sent out with the team's new heavy rescue truck to help cut the person free from the vehicle.
"The van rolled multiple times, but it did land on its wheels," VRA officer James Harris said.
"The person was trapped by compression. The team had to lift up the back of the bus and hold it in place so that they could get to the person in the wheelchair. Each of the patients were transported by mule, a stretcher with a wheel, through the thick shrubbery and up to waiting ambulance crews.
"Everyone worked well together."
The person in the wheelchair was in a critical condition, while two other people were in a serious condition, according to a NSW Ambulance spokesperson.
Three people also sustained minor injuries during the rollover.
All occupants were transported to hospital for further assessment and treatment.
A crime scene has been established by officers attached to Hunter Valley police district.
Motorists have been asked to avoid the area, stay away and use an alternative route while investigators comb the scene.
Newcastle Herald has contacted the taxi company for comment.
The incident has shaken first responders, whose thoughts instantly went to the Greta bus crash of June 2023. It was a day that will be forever etched in the memory of the Hunter community. Ten lives were lost when a bus, leaving a wedding in the Hunter Valley, crashed on Wine Country Drive.
What followed was an outpouring of national grief, especially for the families of those killed in the crash, the survivors and injured passengers, the newlyweds who will forever remember this moment on their wedding anniversary and the Singleton community where many of the victims were from.
