Fire Destroys Home At Booragul

 BY IAN CROUCH

Fire has destroyed a home at Booragul overnight.

Crews from Toronto, Teralba and Cardiff were called to the weatherboard, fibro and iron cottage on Ellesmere Street at about 3 o'clock on Monday morning to find the unoccupied house well alight.

It's taken about 90 minutes to fully extinguish the fire.

No-one was injured and the scene has been handed over to police.  

Crews were called back just before 6 o'clock to put out a number of spot fires following a re-ignition.

Man Faces Court Over Commonwealth Hotel Armed Robbery

 BY IAN CROUCH

A man arrested over a violent armed robbery at a Cooks Hill hotel last week will remain behind bars.

The 34-year-old was arrested at Mayfield on Wednesday following a week-long investigation into the hold-up at the Commonwealth Hotel.

A worker was found injured on King Street following the incident early on the morning of Wednesday 28th February.

It's alleged the cleaner was bashed while trying to escape from the incident.

Police were told two men wielding a machete and a baseball bat forced entry to the hotel.

John Jerrett appeared in Newcastle Court on Thursday charged with robbery while armed with an offensive weapon and reckless grievous bodily harm in company.

He's been refused bail to face court again in May.

Bus Safety At The Forefront Following Greta Wedding Crash

BY OLIVIA DILLON

The state government has accepted all 5 recommendations made in a report into the Hunter Valley bus tragedy

In it's report, the Bus Industry Taskforce is recommending seatbelts be installed in school buses servicing regional and outer-metropolitan areas.  

There's no recommendation to fit seatbelts to city buses, because of the number of passengers who stand. 

The report has also prompted a safety campaign to be rolled out across the state from next week, aiming to educate passengers and bus operators about the importance of enforcing seatbelt use. 

Manager of Port Stephens Coaches Adam Saoullis, says he wants drivers and passengers to be on the same page. 

"The thing we find frustrating is, people wouldn't think twice about putting their seatbelt on in a car, but yet on a bus they won't.

When you look up and see people who haven't got their seatbelt on, you can politely ask them, but they look at us sometimes and think 'wow, why is he asking that?'"

Taskforce Chair John Lee, says they're also calling for a bus speed limitation to be investigated by the government moving forward. 

"On some of those motorways, you can do 100km/h, and we're suggesting that the Centre for Road Safety re-examine that. 

Where there are standees on buses, we're saying it should be capped or maximised at 80km/h," Mr. Lee said. 

Image: Busaways