Cairo Association of Teachers - Newsletter

CAT Tracks for March 2, 2007 COLLEGE BASEBALL TEAM BUS CRASH

From the CNN.com website...

Six killed as bus plunges from overpass

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At least six people were killed when a charter bus carrying a college baseball team from Ohio fell from an overpass onto Interstate 75 early Friday in Atlanta, police said.

Dozens also were injured in the crash just north of downtown, Atlanta Fire Department spokesman Byron Kennedy said.

Nine of the victims were in serious condition, Atlanta police spokesman Joe Cobb said, and another 20 were "walking wounded." There were 35 people on the bus, he said.

The bus exited I-75 south but apparently did not stop at the top of the HOV exit ramp, plunging off the bridge onto the southbound lanes of the expressway, according to two drivers, whose vehicles were hit by the bus or debris falling off it.

An Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter said he saw the wreck during his morning commute and initially thought it was a jack-knifed tractor-trailer before realizing it was a bus.

"There were young people crawling out of the bus. I just tried to help them as best I could," Mike Morris said.

The Executive Coach bus was carrying members of the Bluffton University baseball team, which according to its Web site, was scheduled to play Eastern Mennonite University on Saturday in Sarasota, Florida. Bluffton University is south of Toledo, Ohio. The team then was scheduled to play in a tournament in Fort Myers, Florida.

According to the Executive Coach Web site, the company's 10 buses can carry either 47 or 54 passengers. The Lancaster, Pennsylvania-based company employs five full-time bus drivers and 16 part-timers.

Aerial footage from the scene showed a mangled barrier fence on the bridge above the bus. Debris and luggage were scattered around the bus, and at least nine fire trucks were at the scene.

Georgia Department of Transportation cameras showed the bus lying on its side in the southbound lane of the expressway. Firefighters surrounded the bus.

The wreck closed I-75 in both directions, snarling morning rush-hour traffic, police said. Police later opened the northbound lanes.