As the country now knows, a bus carrying Bluffton University’s baseball team slammed into a concrete barrier on an Atlanta, Georgia overpass and landed on the highway below, killing four students, along with the driver and his wife.
“Investigators said Niemeyer, 65, apparently mistook an exit ramp off the left lane of Interstate 75 for a regular traffic lane and continued at full speed, right through a stop sign at a T-intersection on the overpass,” according to the Associated Press. “The bus slammed against a concrete barrier on the overpass and hurtled over it onto the highway pavement below.”
The Lantern extends its condolences to the families and friends of those who lost loved ones, and to the family that is Bluffton University. We ask the Ohio State community and the people of Ohio to keep those in Bluffton in their thoughts and prayers as they come to terms with this disaster.
The outpouring of support shown by the administrators and students at Bluffton University is a symbol of the commitment universities have with their students. We commend Bluffton University for acknowledging the extent of the impact of this tragedy on its students, as the administrators cancelled Friday classes and have provided trained grief counselors, local pastors and community members for students to meet with, according to its Web site. Also, student organizations that had planned on traveling during spring break have cancelled their trips to remain with their families and friends in wake of this tragedy. We hope the students of the university continue to support each other and the players involved in the accident.
The Georgia Department of Transportation said several accidents have happened at this site, and are waiting for recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board before putting new safety signs in the area.
We encourage GDOT to continue investigating how accidents such as this can be prevented in the future. Although, according to the AP, there are two “Prepare to stop” signs lining the exit ramp, along with those words written across the highway itself, we hope the safety of the I-75 highway exits will be re-evaluated.
If future accidents such as this can be prevented by adding more safety signs, making the flow of the interstate clearer to all drivers, we hope GDOT will follow any such recommendation. We hope GDOT will do everything in its power to assure the victims of this crash and drivers living in and driving through Georgia will not encounter the same confusion as the driver of the bus.
