College Baseball Team Bus Crash

A bus carrying a baseball team from a small college in Ohio, Bluffton University, crashes -- six dead.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/03/02/bus.accident/index.html

Were on their way to Florida for a tournament. Sounds like the driver got in the wrong lane on the highway--an HOV off ramp, and at the top of the ramp crashed off it, back onto the highway. It's lucky no one underneath on I-75 was killed by the bus falling on them.

Most of the kids were probably asleep at the time it happened and then instantaneous horror. RIP to those lost and hope the other seriously injured can pull through.

 

Very tragic. Bluffton's site is crashed this morning, I presume.

Having driven in Atlanta, I know how nuts it is. ... Although it couldn't have been too congested at that hour. Was the driver just confused?

 

That's what it sounds like: got into an off ramp lane, and didn't have enough time to stop or turn and fell back onto the highway.

 

Terrible. Terrible. I didn't even know there was a Blufton. It sucks that I had to learn about it this way. I wish there were a way that schools could avoid the late-night drives that seem to lead to many of these accidents.

 

Bluffton, FWIW, is a Mennonite school.

If they'd been an Amish school, they'd have played that tournament in a cow pasture in Millersburg instead.

 

Depressing morning between this and the tornado down in Enterprise, Ala. where eight kids at the high school were killed by a falling wall.

 

Yep. It's crashing - can't access it.

How sad. RIP to those lost and to their families. With 35 on that bus, it's a wonder more weren't killed.

 

Maybe I'm looking at it wrong -- the video of the aftermath is small -- but it sure seems like there isn't much of a railing or protective wall on that off ramp.

 

If I'm reading this correctly, the bussie tried to swerve off of the ramp once he realized his mistake instead of staying on the ramp then turning around and getting back on the interstate?

 

In watching the morning news coverage of this, I'm noticing a lot of people saying that it's easy to not realize you're going off the interstate and onto the ramp. Perhaps I don't get it, but wouldn't you notice that you're going up? Maybe they should think about putting in rumble strips at the entrance to jar drivers into paying attention.

A_QB: I think what happened was the driver realized he wasn't on the interstate anymore when he was at the top of the ramp, by which point there's no room to brake. Tried to turn, but not enough room for that with a wide-radius vehicle like that, and a bus that big going that fast will go over the railing on the far side of the overpass with ease.

 

But how fast could a bus be going while on a ramp?

 

Ugh. I hate waking up to terrible news like this.