Bus Carrying Baseball Team Falls From Overpass

[Mr. P]

ATLANTA -- A charter bus tumbled off an overpass and onto Interstate 75 in Atlanta Friday morning, shutting down the highway in both directions.

There were reports of at least six fatalities. The bus was carrying the Bluffton University baseball team from Bluffton, Ohio, heading to Florida.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/11153863/detail.html

[Mr. P]

All corporations are not mean and nasty. Air-Tran Airline offered FREE flights to Atlanta for Parents of these kids within a few hours of the accident. :clap:

[5stringJeff]

All corporations are not mean and nasty. Air-Tran Airline offered FREE flights to Atlanta for Parents of these kids within a few hours of the accident. :clap:

That's a bright spot for a tragic situation. :(

[Abbey Marie]

Any reports on how this happened? Bad weather? Drunk driver? The article didn't say.

[Mr. P]

Any reports on how this happened? Bad weather? Drunk driver? The article didn't say.

The driver was fresh..only driving for 1hr, good weather. He was in the HOV lane (high occupancy vehicle lane). The lane split for an exit and he followed the exit split, apparently thinking he was still on the Interstate. He ran out of pavement at the top of the exit, crossed 6 lanes of traffic, crashed through the bridge fence on the opposite side and landed back on the interstate 20 feet below.

They do not suspect drugs or alcohol.

[Abbey Marie]

The driver was fresh..only driving for 1hr, good weather. He was in the HOV lane (high occupancy vehicle lane). The lane split for an exit and he followed the exit split, apparently thinking he was still on the Interstate. He ran out of pavement at the top of the exit, crossed 6 lanes of traffic, crashed through the bridge fence on the opposite side and landed back on the interstate 20 feet below.

They do not suspect drugs or alcohol.

Yikes. Perhaps he was distracted. I hope he wasn't talking on a cell phone.
We take charter buses for band competitions, and some of the drivers are a real trip.

[Yurt]

I have heard reports that the HOV lane split is very confusing, even for locals, and this guy logically took the left HOV lane (which in most states is the continuing lane) instead of the right split (which in most states is the exit) and the left lane is on a rise where the guy most likely did not see the stop sign until too late at his rate of speed and then tried to veer to the right (as the skid marks show) but it was too late and the bus flipped over the edge of the over pass.

Poor design it looks like. Not say the driver is totally innocent, but from the people I saw interviewed on TV (local atlantians) they even said the HOV splits are confusing.

Tragic

[Mr. P]

I have heard reports that the HOV lane split is very confusing, even for locals, and this guy logically took the left HOV lane (which in most states is the continuing lane) instead of the right split (which in most states is the exit) and the left lane is on a rise where the guy most likely did not see the stop sign until too late at his rate of speed and then tried to veer to the right (as the skid marks show) but it was too late and the bus flipped over the edge of the over pass.

Poor design it looks like. Not say the driver is totally innocent, but from the people I saw interviewed on TV (local atlantians) they even said the HOV splits are confusing.

Tragic

I think it's a poor design too, even though it's very well marked and there are 'warning' signs about the upcoming stop sign well before you get there.

[Yurt]

I think it's a poor design too, even though it's very well marked and there are 'warning' signs about the upcoming stop sign well before you get there.

Do the signs give adequate warning? Even if something is dangerous, with adequate warning it can save lives.

Are you from there?

[Mr. P]

Do the signs give adequate warning? Even if something is dangerous, with adequate warning it can save lives.

Are you from there?

I live just outside of Atlanta. There are signs a mile away announcing the upcomimg exit. Then the warning signs of the upcoming stop sign well before it.

It is a poor design though IMO.

[Yurt]

I live just outside of Atlanta. There are signs a mile away announcing the upcomimg exit. Then the warning signs of the upcoming stop sign well before it.

It is a poor design though IMO.

Interesting. Poor design, yet adequate warnings. I think then that the warnings must not be good enough. A design can be bad, but if you give adequate warning, then one can avoid danger. Though, if something is made so inadaquate, that no warning will suffice, then it is unreasonably dangerous and the city is strictly liable.

[Mr. P]

Interesting. Poor design, yet adequate warnings. I think then that the warnings must not be good enough. A design can be bad, but if you give adequate warning, then one can avoid danger. Though, if something is made so inadaquate, that no warning will suffice, then it is unreasonably dangerous and the city is strictly liable.

Over the years they have totally screwed-up this section of the interstate that runs through Atlanta. It used to be pretty straight forward, now we have a big mess. IMO. I avoid the area at all cost.

[Yurt]

Over the years they have totally screwed-up this section of the interstate that runs through Atlanta. It used to be pretty straight forward, now we have a big mess. IMO. I avoid the area at all cost.

Got it.

[Nienna]

I think one of the kids on that bus was the son of my husband's former coworker. Not one of the kids that got killed, though.

And remember that plane crash last year? I think it was in Lexington, KY, bound for Atlanta? (Maybe) Another of my husband's former coworkers was killed in that crash.

:(

[Yurt]

Official: Wrecks common at Ga. exit ramp

ATLANTA - Georgia transportation officials said Sunday they had no immediate plans to close or add safety signs to the highway exit ramp where a bus carrying a college baseball team crashed and killed six people, including the driver.

The state Department of Transportation wants to see recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board before adding any new safety devices such as signs or stoplights to the Interstate 75 ramp, said spokesman David Spear.

"We won't wait until their final published report. If during the course of their conversations it might make this better, we're going to act on it," he said.

The team from the Mennonite-affiliated Bluffton University was traveling to its annual spring training in Florida when the charter bus crashed before daybreak Friday. Investigators said the driver apparently mistook an exit ramp for a regular lane, and the bus crashed into a barrier at a T-shaped intersection and plummeted off the overpass onto the highway below.

The NTSB said Saturday that the accident site has had numerous crashes and can be difficult for drivers to navigate. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that an analysis of the state transportation database showed 82 other accidents on the ramp with two deaths. Spear said he could not confirm that number.

"I don't believe that's an inordinately high number in a major metropolitan area," Spear said. "Certainly there have not been any accidents with the severity of what we witnessed."

There are two "Prepare to Stop" signs on the ramp, which exits off the left lane, and the same words are painted on the ramp itself, he said.

"Our view of that ramp has been that it is in total compliance with industry design standards," Spear said.

Fred Hanscom, director of independent consulting group Transportation Research Corp., said the ramp could have larger signs, a stoplight at the top or pavement grooves that make a noise to warn drivers to slow down.

"The fact that this ramp went almost parallel with the main line (of the interstate) was a confusing factor," Hanscom said. "Drivers normally expect ramps to go to the right and not the left."

There are tire marks at the scene, but it is unclear when the driver realized his mistake and tried to correct it, said Kitty Higgins, who is leading the NTSB's investigation.

It was hours before the players, and those at their tight-knit Ohio campus about 55 miles south of Toledo, knew the toll: Four teammates dead, plus the driver and his wife. Twenty-nine were injured, and eight remained hospitalized Saturday night. Five were in serious or critical condition, and the rest were in fair or stable condition.

Family members of killed and injured students were to return to Toledo Sunday afternoon on board a charter flight.

Killed were two freshman, Scott Harmon and Cody Holp, and two sophomores, Tyler Williams and David Betts. The driver and his wife, Jerome and Jean Niemeyer, also died.

"We are sincerely grateful for the outreaching of family and friends. We find comfort in knowing that our parents were loved by so many," the Niemeyer's family said in a statement issued Saturday night.

A.J. Ramthun woke up in his window seat to see the ground come up at him as the bus was falling. It was only when his seriously injured coach grabbed his arm afterward that he realized his collarbone was broken.

"We looked, and thought 'How did we survive that?'" Ramthun said.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070304/ap_on_re_us/georgia_bus_wreck;_ylt=AvhTKDJx52435iZQbGRi2_QEtbA F