College Baseball Team Bus Crash

Well, you're hitting the ramp at interstate speed, and it's a straight hill, no turns or anything like that. If the driver didn't realize he was on the off-ramp, perhaps the hill would slow him down some, but he was probably still going at a pretty good clip when he got to the top of the ramp.

 

Not to make light of the situation, because it is a horrible, horrible accident... but did anyone else catch the tail end of the CNN article?

"AirTran Airways said it will offer free flights between Ohio and Atlanta to families of those involved in the crash."

Given your choice between driving down and flying AirTran, I'd still probably choose driving...

 

You know, this driver might not have been Evel Knievel, but it always amazes me the calm with which bus drivers seem to operate. I've been on numerous Greyhounds where the driver's tooling along WELL above the speed limit, making the bus lean around turns like it wasn't decently top-heavy, with his hands casually on the steering wheel. The whole thing creeps me out and makes me want to seek out a train if I can.

 

At this point, we don't know how the accident played out, and it's out of line for us to jump to conclusions. But that information will inevitably come out, because it's almost certain that there is video of the accident.

UPDATE: Just read AJC story and indication was there are no skid marks on the ramp.

 

Actually, the more potential for (unintentional) offense can be found in his sig about a girl taking a hot beef injection up the exit ramp. At least for this thread.

 

Wow. If you head to the photo gallery on ajc.com, there is a chilling photo (around #11) of four bodies covered by sheets. I didn't post it here for obvious reasons.

 

And with the driver being one of the dead, we'll never get to know what really happened

 

Two of the kids are from a high school in our coverage area. One walked away with just a bruise. The other suffered severe injuries but is alive.

 

Police say there are no signs of any attempt to brake/stop. I get the feeling the driver fell asleep at the wheel. Just awful.

 

I don't know, CK. According to the story, he had just taken over an hour before. And an audio report I heard said, as has been said already on this thread, that you can get on that ramp without realizing it. They said he tried to turn and couldn't make it at that rate of speed, so unless he woke up at a certain time at the top of the ramp, I dont' think so.

 

It sounds like the mistake wouldn't be that hard, particularly in the dark. To stay on the HOV lane, you have to stay to the left for miles. This was the first situation where you didn't stay in the far left lane. Unfortunately, he did stay in the far left lane, which turned out to be an off ramp.