Multiple passengers who survived a fatal bus crash at Kangaroo Valley nine years ago have revealed they harboured concerns over the "competence and confidence" of their driver before they even left Sydney.
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Graham Lees, 58, died instantly and 27 of his passengers were injured when his Austral Starliner coach plunged into a ravine on Barrengarry Mountain on the evening of May 14, 2010.
Graham's 33-year-old son, Simon Lees, and his mechanic friend Stuart Lewry, 43, are on trial charged with involuntary manslaughter and causing grievous bodily harm after a police investigation found the bus' rear brakes had catastrophically failed in the moments before the crash.
The Crown alleges Simon Lees, as the company's then operations manager, allowed the vehicle to be used despite being fully aware of the problems with the braking system.
Lewry is alleged to have given the bus a pink slip nine days earlier without carrying out a mandatory inspection.
In Wollongong District Court on Thursday, passenger Ewa Wizbicki said Graham Lees was sweating and appeared "upset" and "unsettled" before they left the White Eagle Polish Club in Cabrammatta that afternoon, bound for a Kangaroo Valley retreat.
She noted he had some difficulty getting the bus out of the carpark at the club, then came to a complete stop as he tried to merge onto the M7.
"My feeling was he wasn't confident with this type of driving," Mrs Wizbicki said.
Her husband Jan expressed a similar sentiment when giving his evidence in court, saying Graham Lees looked "nervous" at times during the trip.
Meanwhile, Mrs Wizbicki said the trip to Barrengarry Mountain was largely uneventful however on the bend prior to the crash site the bus hit the safety railing, prompting her to ask Graham Lees' why he wasn't using a lower gear.
"He said 'leave me alone, I’m the driver I know what I’m doing'. The last words I heard from him were 'we're in trouble, I can't do anything'," she said.
"I grabbed the metal rail [in front of me] and squeezed. I felt the bus hit the trees….my right side hit the wall of the bus. My right foot [became] trapped between the driver’s seat and the floor."
Another passenger, a 17-year-old girl who cannot be named for legal reasons, told the court she heard Graham Lees say there was nothing he could do moments before the bus hit the guard rail.
"I got thrown forward….backwards and to the side, I briefly blacked out," she said.
"When I came to, the bus was stopped [in front of] trees. The smell of petrol was really strong. There was a lot of confusion, it was chaotic."
The trial continues.