ADAMSTOWN residents and workers have raised concerns about the safety of a section of Brunker Road where a woman died after being hit by a bus while walking her dog on Tuesday.
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Crash investigators are still working to confirm the circumstances which led to the incident and police were on Wednesday calling for witnesses to come forward.
The identity of the 35-year-old woman hit and killed by the bus carrying 16 students about 3.30pm on Tuesday has not been released.
Locals on Wednesday said she sometimes visited The Barn cafe and had been seen walking her dog in the past.
The woman is believed to have been hit on a pedestrian crossing on Brunker Road, near Mandalong Road, which City of Newcastle upgraded earlier this year.
The council said in January the changes would "increase driver awareness and improve safety" for school children and pedestrians.
The Barn cafe owner Matt Austin, whose security cameras captured Tuesday's incident, said the speed of vehicles on Brunker Road was an ongoing issue.
"They put the speed hump in for a reason," he said.
"I walk out of work every day at three of four o'clock and people definitely aren't doing [the signposted] 25 km/h over the pedestrian [crossing], it's more like 60 km/h."
Despite the upgrade, Nadine Platt, manger of nearby PRP Imagining, said it was "a very dangerous crossing".
"For school hours, there is a lollipop person who walks out and stops traffic because it is notoriously dangerous," she said. "It used to be further up. It was horrendous.
"There was a lot of near misses there in the past.
"Council has spent a lot of money on changing that crossing but there's still a lot of people that just fly straight through it."
Staff of MGH Packaging, who were among those first on the scene, laid flowers by the roadside on Wednesday.
An MGH Packaging manager said staff who rendered assistance preferred not to speak about the incident.
PRP Imaging's Nadine Platt said traffic volumes and vehicle speed made the section of road dangerous.
"A lot of traffic, particularly at peak hour," she said.
"People speed. You've got cars coming out of the side street, the cafe is fairly busy, so you've people turning in and out. [Drivers] are watching for a place in the traffic, not looking for pedestrians.
"I went to step out on it the other day, but I will not cross that road now until both the cars have stopped, because people just - I don't know whether they don't see you, I don't know what the visibility is like, I don't know."
Brunker Road resident Kyle Day was getting a lift home home from watching the Melbourne Cup on Tuesday and past the incident minutes after it occurred.
"The first thing I noticed was that there was a sign that was bent and I was like, that's not good," he said.
"I thought maybe someone had been hit. We noticed they were giving CPR to someone. We just heard ambulances screaming down the road."
Mr Day's car, parked on the side of Brunker Road, was hit by the bus - along with four neighbours' vehicles.
"The car that was parked [outside my house] was in my driveway," he said.
"My next door neighbour's car was spun around and turned into a tin can, my car was in someone else's driveway. My car's damaged at the rear, but like I said it's a car - someone's life was taken, you can't really compare it.
"I was lucky enough to be at the pub, because I was working in the driveway and as you know, there was a car [come through]. It was a close call if I was here."
Mr Day said "no one knows what's happened" but the incident appeared to have been a "freak accident".
A local for about five months, he thought the road was relatively safe.
"There doesn't seem to be any issues, it's just a freak accident," he said.
"I don't know what it's like here, all I know is that there is always lollipop ladies walking people across the pedestrian crossing during school hours."
Transport for NSW confirmed a school crossing supervisor had been working at the time of the incident but had not been injured. There was no supervisor in place on Wednesday afternoon.
Keolis Downer general manager Mark Dunlop said on Wednesday an internal investigation had commenced.
"Our thoughts are with the family and friends of the pedestrian who lost their life," he said. "Keolis Downer is assisting NSW Police with their investigation, as well as conducting our own.
"We are providing support to the bus operator and those involved in the incident, to ensure their welfare following this tragic event.
"Nothing is more important to Keolis Downer than the safety of our passengers, employees and the wider community."