Fatal Bus Crash Survivor - An Open Letter to the NT

Dear Northern Territory of Australia,

After the Hunter Valley Bus Crash verdict, we victims of a fatal bus crash in the NT face a future without justice.

I bring to your attention the recent verdict in the Hunter Valley Bus Crash which jailed the driver for at least 24 years. A crash that happened over a year after our own.

The victims and family members of the crash have received justice via a custodial sentence, and they can now seek, via a civil court, restitution from the parties that have so horribly wronged them.

For those unaware, anyone injured in a motor vehicle accident in the NT cannot sue or bring a civil claim in relation to it; regardless of how wronged or criminal the cause of the crash. See the recent article regarding our treatment under the devil-incarnate-Allianz ran MAC TIO scheme, by The NT News, which details how it has harmed us, and others, further since the crash. This reprehensible programme ties in with the law which removes our common law right to hold the responsible party in this crash (Patrick Bedford/Emu Run Tour) at fault in court in a civil matter. We have no legal route to sue or seek damages from a civil claim.

The only justice we will receive is in a Work Safe prosecution that is being brought forth - this has no custodial sentence punishment. As such, it is meek, without teeth, a slap-on-the-wrist: a farcical punishment unfit for the crime committed.

We have tried, despite how difficult, to speak out about how ruinous this crash has been to our lives and our health. It has destroyed our lives as we knew them.

We see a trivial difference between a driver who takes opioids and causes a fatal crash on a road to that of an owner of a company who makes significant material changes, illegally, to a bus; knowingly causing it to be inherently dangerous and unfit for the road.

One would argue that the latter acted with greater malice. An owner of a company, shielded by being a director, seems to be subject to a different level of justice and law than that of an employee. The Director of Emu Run, Patrick Bedford, had full knowledge of his crimes, months of which every day he gambled with the lives of passengers, with full knowledge and in possession of the information that the bus he sent out, every day, was overbearing a disastrous weight, a deathtrap, a ticking time bomb, and any reasonable person would know that he had countless instances to right his mistake, one illegally done in the first place, but he didn't.

The Hunter Valley Driver, saddled with addiction, committed a grievous criminal mistake when driving that day, a crime with devastating consequences; I ask how that mistake compares to the crime of ruining the mechanical designs of a bus, in full knowledge of compromising its safety, and then sending that bus out every day until the crime comes to fruition.

Patrick Bedford knew that he would not face a custodial sentence. In fact, without a death, it is highly unlikely the bus ever would have been remade/reconstructed to find out the crime committed. A perverse outcome that we know only of this crime due to a fatality. This deception and knowledge that the complications of the machinery would make his crime likely undetectable bears with it a sinister weight far beyond that of an individual, high on painkillers, who drove a shift whilst under the influence and of an unsound mind. Patrick Bedford's mind was of clear mind and in the knowledge of his wrongdoing did nothing, for he had the security, that as a 'director', he would never suffer the consequences of the Hunter Valley Bus Driver. And that he would never suffer any civil penalties - these would be burdened by the taxpayers of the Northern Territory: plunging his victims into a scheme of Orwellian proportion.

Patrick Bedford knew that he would not face the family of the deceased, or us victims who have suffered life-changing injuries in court. And prophetically this has come true, the Hunter Valley bus crash had a driver who made a horrendous mistake one time, and rightly he has been punished for that; Patrick Bedford and Emu Run made that mistake for three plus months, over 90 times, and it is by the virtue of luck that another car or obstacle was not on the road as we flipped and rolled at terrifying speed. I am sure, that had there been all the people in the bus that day would have died.

Tragically, it was Richard who died on his 40th wedding anniversary. Aged 69. With his golden years ahead of him. And I, like so many others, come away with the unhealing breakage of bones, of limbs that will never be the same, of minds crippled, physical and psychological destruction, that due to Patrick Bedford has proven pernicious to us and others' lives.

Patrick Bedford resides as Chair of a high-profile tourism board; sitting alongside the Mayor of Alice Springs and Government Stakeholders. Whilst the NT reduces the age of criminal responsibility to 10, those with money and privilege and station seem to bear no criminal responsibility at all.

We once again write openly to press for the highest possible charges against these criminals to be delivered and that the highest penalty and sanctions be sought.

They will face no other consequences than those which Work Safe can bring - which are at most a fine of money. A pauper's settlement for such a grievous crime. Where is our justice?

Joshua Clements

Please help us in our fight for justice by signing this free petition for change: https://www.change.org/p/end-the-northen-territory-mac-act-end-the-no-fault-law-give-victims-compensation