The 42-year-old nurse was coming home from a shift at Cessnock Hospital when she was killed in a car accident on Harpers Hill on Monday.

The hospital, where Ms Welch worked for 18 years, had swapped her shift with another nurse resulting in her arriving home at 4pm in peak hour traffic.

She had stopped on the New England Highway and was attempting to turn into the driveway of her property when her car was struck from behind by a school bus, forcing her onto the east bound lane and into the path of an oncoming ute.

Ms Welch was the 10th person to die on that section of road, a known black spot, in the past 12 years.

Her former partner, Darren Millar, told the Mercury yesterday that when he heard about the accident he immediately tried to contact her.

“I sent a text message to her just to let her know there was an accident outside of her house,” he said.

“When I didn’t get a reply I was a bit worried so I sent her another one and another.

“Then I turned on the television and saw on the news that it was her car.

“Right away the phone rang and it was her best friend telling me that she was gone.”

Mr Millar said Sue wasn’t supposed to be on the road at the time.

“It wasn’t even her shift,” he said.

“She wasn’t supposed to be working – she usually did the afternoon shift and came home at night.”

Mr Millar said Sue had moved to Harpers Hill to be closer to where she worked.

“She hated the long commute and she hated that dangerous stretch of road,” he said.

“She moved from Singleton so she’d be closer to Cessnock Hospital.”