The school bus driver involved in a road crash which allegedly left Jeffrey Epstein victim Virginia Giuffre close to death has spoken for the first time about the accident.
Ross Munns contradicted Ms Giuffre’s account of the incident, and insisted that the car was in a minor collision with his bus.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Mail Australia, he claimed the crash had been ‘blown out of proportion’ and accused Ms Giuffre, 41, of exaggerating the severity of what happened.
Ms Giuffre, who won a multimillion-pound payout from Prince Andrew after claiming she was trafficked to have sex with him at the age of 17, told her Instagram followers on Sunday that she only had ‘four days to live’ after suffering kidney failure in the crash.
‘I won’t bore anyone with the details but I think it important to note that when a school bus driver comes at you driving 110km as we were slowing for a turn that no matter what your car is made of it might as well be a tin can,’ she wrote in the post.
On Tuesday she said via a spokesperson that the post about her injuries and selfie of her badly bruised face had been posted to her public Instagram in error and was only meant to be on her private Facebook page.
Mr Munns said that the crash happened after he had followed a slow-moving white car for three kilometres before deciding to overtake when it went under 75kmh and it was safe for him to pass it, around 3pm on Monday last week.
He said that the small white Toyota Highlander involved in the collision was driven by a 71-year-old woman who he believed to be Ms Giuffre’s carer. He said he had no recollection of Ms Giuffre being in the Toyota, but a police report into the incident later stated that a woman aged 41 was a passenger.
Bus driver Ross Munns (above) has contradicted Virginia Giuffre’s account of the incident, insisting that the car was in a minor collision with his bus
Mr Munns said that he had about 29 children still on board as he began his manoeuvre only for the car to suddenly start turning right in front of him to get into a rural property north of Perth, Western Australia.
Mr Munns, a school bus driver for 16 years, said that he beeped his horn, but he was unable to avoid clipping the car and damaging its tail-light in what he described as ‘a minor collision’.
He said he immediately stopped and went to check on the car driver who had also pulled over, and was satisfied that she was not hurt.
Mr Munns said he and the 71-year-old woman swapped details including phone numbers and were both able to drive away afterwards, but he decided to report the incident to police as he felt the circumstances were ‘a little bit suss’.
He insisted that he was under no obligation to report the crash as the law only required accidents to be reported if they caused more than $2,000 damage and in his view the incident did not pass the threshold.
Mr Munns said he later telephoned the driver as a courtesy to say he had reported the accident and she rang him back the next day to say there had been a passenger in the car who had suffered ‘a black eye’.
The grandfather from Lancelin near Perth said he was horrified to see Ms Giuffre’s Instagram post claiming that she had been injured when a school bus had ploughed into her car at a speed of 110km/h, as buses in Western Australia are restricted to a top speed of 100km/h.
Describing Ms Giuffre’s claims and the circumstances of the crash, he said: ‘It’s just all blown out of proportion and I know what happened. I didn’t even see her in the car.’
Giuffre, 41, posted on Instagram about the crash on March 24
The famous photograph of the-then Virginia Roberts and Prince Andrew and Ghislaine Maxwell that led to the royal’s downfall and the reported $20million payout
He said the accident was caused by the carer, saying: ‘The driver basically pulled out in front of me. I made sure she was alright, and I went and did a police report.’
Mr Munns added: ‘She was elderly and I asked if she was ok, and she said, “Yes I’m ok”.
‘I asked if she lived here and she said, “No I’m a carer”, and I told her she needs to put her indicator on when you have to turn.
‘That’s all the conversation was, and she asked how the kids were and I said, “fine”. It wasn’t a major crash.’
Mr Munns said the impact was so minor that there was no damage at all to his Roo Bar – the bar designed to protect his bus from damage caused by hitting kangaroos on the road.
He said: ‘There is nothing on my Roo Bar. I still had 29 kids on the bus I didn’t even take a photo because it wasn’t warranted.’
Mr Munns told why he reported the crash to police, saying: ‘I did it because to me it sounded a little bit suss.
‘You don’t have to do a police report if the damage is under $2,000 but it sounded suss to me. We have a very good reputation and it’s all best around safety.’
Virginia Giuffre with a photo of her younger self (left) and the late Jeffrey Epstein with Ghislaine Maxwell, decades before they would each be jailed in the US on sex trafficking charges
He added: ‘It just wasn’t normal – weird driving. We swapped phone numbers and I had a look around and I asked if everything was ok and the next morning she rang.
‘I thought it was all very strange and I told her I had already done a police report, and that’s all I have to say. And that’s when she told me there was another person in the car who had a black eye.’
Mr Munns said a police officer who had photographed his bus was ‘laughing’ as he did so.
He went on: ‘I actually feel sorry for her. If I hit that car at 110 they would be dead. I used to drive ambulances for years in the country and I know how to have a good look.
‘I have got the-all clear from the police and if they want to come for insurance, I will fight that as well.
‘She said she was hit by a bus at 110km/h and all buses in Western Australia are governed to 100km/h.
‘I was doing 75 and its only when she slowed down even more, I decided to pass her.’
Describing his reaction when he saw the picture of Ms Giuffre’s reported injuries, he added: ‘I just laughed… There is no way you could get that injury if you were in that car.’
But he said he was fed up about the crash and having to deal with its aftermath, saying: ‘I would rather this just go away.’
Virginia Giuffre (above in Cairns six years ago) and her estranged husband Robert moved to their beachside mansion in Perth after her reported $20million payout from Prince Andrew
Ms Giuffre who was known as Virginia Roberts before her marriage claimed she had been injured in the school bus crash in her Instagram post from her hospital bed, saying she wanted to see her three children for a last time.
She wrote: ‘I’ve gone into kidney renal failure, they’ve given me four days to live, transferring me to a specialist hospital in urology.
‘I’m ready to go, just not until I see my babies one last time. My heart is shattered and every day that passes my sadness only deepens.’
A spokesman for Giuffre later admitted that she had ‘made a mistake’ and had not intended to publish the post publicly. Medical sources have said she does not just have days to live.
Daily Mail Australia has revealed that Giuffre was listed at a Perth Magistrates Court hearing 10 days before the crash over the alleged breach of the family violence restraining order.
Her estranged husband Robert Giuffre was also listed at the same court in February for allegedly ‘providing inadequate storage facility for firearms’.
It is understood the couple recently separated after 22 years of marriage and no longer live together at their lavish $1.9million mansion in a Perth beachside suburb.
They bought the six-bedroom home five years ago, putting down a deposit on it six months before Ms Giuffre launched her lawsuit against Prince Andrew for allegedly sexually abusing her when she was a teenager.
Virginia Giuffre is estranged from husband of 22 years Robert (above the couple in 2019)
The purchase was finalised before the matter was settled out of court with a payment of an undisclosed amount from Prince Andrew who made no admission as to liability.
The couple now appear to be locked in a messy tug of love over their children.
Two days before the car crash, Giuffre posted a sun-dappled picture of her children on a beach on March 22, accompanied by an apparent desperate plea to see them.
She posted: ‘My beautiful babies have no clue how much I love them and they’re being poisoned with lies.
‘I miss them so very much. I have been through hell and back in my 41 years but this is incredibly hurting me worse than anything else.
‘Hurt me, abuse me but don’t take my babies. My heart is shattered and every day that passes my sadness only deepens.’
Giuffre met her future husband when she was just 19 while training as a masseuse in Thailand.
The course had been paid for by the late paedophile Jeffrey Epstein, who had sex trafficked Giuffre with his accomplice Ghislaine Maxwell.
Western Australia Police said a 41-year-old woman had been reported to be a passenger in a car involved in a ‘minor collision’ with a bus at Neergabby, north of Perth, on March 24, and no one had been injured.
According to 9News Perth, Ms Giuffre’s 71-year-old ‘carer’ was driving the car at the time.
Acting Western Australian Police Commissioner Kylie Whiteley said: ‘We have no report of any serious injuries.’
Giuffre is understood to have been treated at a local health centre for a pre-existing condition and released.
She later checked into another hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, after her disturbing Instagram post went public.
Her father Sky Roberts told DailyMail.com that he is ‘sick to my stomach’ and would do anything to be able to fly from his home in Florida to be by his daughter’s hospital bedside in Australia.
Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Ms Giuffre made the incident up or exaggerated it.
