SCHOOL BUS CRASH REPORTS 2007

Florida-Bound Bus Falls From Highway Ramp, Killing 6
March 2, 2007

ATLANTA -- A charter bus carrying a college baseball team from Ohio plunged off a highway ramp early Friday and slammed into the pavement below, killing at least six people and scattering sports equipment across the road, authorities said.

The bus, carrying the team from Bluffton University, a Mennonite-affiliated school south of Toledo, toppled off the Northside Drive bridge onto Interstate 75 in clear, pre-dawn weather, police spokesman Joe Cobb said.

At least six of the 35 people aboard were killed and others were injured.

"It's bad, I know that," Cobb said. "It's hard to describe. The bus is completely annihilated."

Dr. Leon Haley, head of emergency services at Grady, said 19 accident victims were taken to Grady.

Haley said three were in critical condition and 16 were being evaluated. Most had broken bones. The 16 were awake and talking.

"All things considered they are pretty calm ... They are very aware of what's going on," Haley said.

Haley said the driver was not taken to Grady.

He said three injured people were taken to Piedmont Hospital and seven to Atlanta Medical Center.

Officials at the three hospitals said all of the injured are young adults of college age, but the age of one injured person at Piedmont was not available.

A university spokeswoman, Jill Duling, confirmed the bus that crashed was carrying the team, but said she could not provide any other information. The school canceled Friday classes and scheduled a press conference for later Friday.

The team was scheduled to play its first game of the season in Sarasota, Fla., on Saturday against Eastern Mennonite College of Harrisonburg, Va. It had eight games scheduled in Fort Myers, Fla., beginning Monday.

Firefighters pulled people through the roof of the bus, which was on its side. Sports equipment was scattered along the interstate.

Debra Dukes, 50, came early to her morning shift at a nearby Waffle House. She was eating breakfast with her husband when they heard "a real loud boom" that shook the restaurant.

Dukes said some Waffle House employees went outside to help some of the college students who had escaped the bus wreck.

When the employees told her what had happened, she said to herself, "Why would a bus fall off a bridge?"

Cobb said the bus was coming southbound on I-75. He said the bus driver may not have planned to exit the interstate, and may have mistaken a car pool exit ramp for the regular car pool lane that continues down the interstate.

When the bus went off the bridge, it landed in the southbound lanes of the interstate, blocking all four lanes. Five fire trucks and at least three dozen firefighters were at the scene.

Danny Lloyd, 57, of Frostburg, Md., said he was on his way to Florida when the falling bus landed on his pickup truck.

"It looked to me like a big slab of concrete falling down," Lloyd said. "I didn't recognize it was a bus. I think when I saw the thing coming, I think I closed my eyes and stepped on the gas."

He said the impact broke his windshield, pushed his truck into the concrete and wrecked the front bumper. He was not injured.

In Bluffton, Pastor Steve Yoder with the First Mennonite Church, said the university is has close ties to the community and that the tragedy would have a heavy impact.

"Bluffton University is very involved in the community. It's a Christian college and a lot of students come with faith backgrounds," he said. "It really impacts the whole community. There are a lot of connections."

Bluffton clergy were organizing a Friday campus gathering to give students a venue to express their feelings about the crash, Yoder said.

Bluffton University, 50 miles south of Toledo, has 1,150 students and is affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA.

Copyright 2007, The Gainesville Sun

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