6 killed as bus crashes onto I-75
By MIKE MORRIS
Published on: 03/02/07
Atlanta Journal Constitution
A charter bus, reportedly carrying members of a baseball team from Ohio, crashed onto I-75 from an overpass at Northside Drive early Friday morning, killing six people and closing the southbound lanes of the interstate.
Witnesses said the bus, reportedly bound for Florida, got off the freeway at the Northside HOV exit, appeared to slide or lose control, crossed Northside at an angle and plunged through the bridge barrier onto 75. Some of the luggage scattered on the road was labeled Bluffton University Baseball.
Atlanta police spokesman Joe Cobb, who said six people were killed, said nine were seriously injured and 20 were "walking wounded." There were 35 people on the bus. The injured were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Cobb said the interstate would be closed "probably all day."
It was the second fatal wreck interstate in a matter of hours. A metro Atlanta police officer was killed on I-75/85 just south of Fulton Streetwhen his Cadillac Escalade hit a Clayton County Ambulance head-on. Police said he was driving the wrong way on the road.
On Northside Drive, above the wreck, luggage and baseball equipment was scattered on the road, apparently dislodged from the bus when it hit the bridge's 2-foot-high retaining wall and crashed through a 10-foot-high fence atop the wall.
Northbound traffic was moving past the accident scene. Police were directing drivers in the southbound lanes to turn around and go north on the southbound lanes to the Howell Mill exit. They were moving out cars first, to make room for several tractor-trailers to turn around.
According to its Web site, Bluffton University is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA, and has "a strong spiritual tradition." The school's 234-acre campus is located in the northwest Ohio village of Bluffton.
The baseball team's schedule had the team playing in the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., March 5-9.
By MIKE MORRIS
Published on: 03/02/07
Atlanta Journal Constitution
A charter bus, reportedly carrying members of a baseball team from Ohio, crashed onto I-75 from an overpass at Northside Drive early Friday morning, killing six people and closing the southbound lanes of the interstate.
Witnesses said the bus, reportedly bound for Florida, got off the freeway at the Northside HOV exit, appeared to slide or lose control, crossed Northside at an angle and plunged through the bridge barrier onto 75. Some of the luggage scattered on the road was labeled Bluffton University Baseball.
Atlanta police spokesman Joe Cobb, who said six people were killed, said nine were seriously injured and 20 were "walking wounded." There were 35 people on the bus. The injured were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.
Cobb said the interstate would be closed "probably all day."
It was the second fatal wreck interstate in a matter of hours. A metro Atlanta police officer was killed on I-75/85 just south of Fulton Streetwhen his Cadillac Escalade hit a Clayton County Ambulance head-on. Police said he was driving the wrong way on the road.
On Northside Drive, above the wreck, luggage and baseball equipment was scattered on the road, apparently dislodged from the bus when it hit the bridge's 2-foot-high retaining wall and crashed through a 10-foot-high fence atop the wall.
Northbound traffic was moving past the accident scene. Police were directing drivers in the southbound lanes to turn around and go north on the southbound lanes to the Howell Mill exit. They were moving out cars first, to make room for several tractor-trailers to turn around.
According to its Web site, Bluffton University is affiliated with Mennonite Church USA, and has "a strong spiritual tradition." The school's 234-acre campus is located in the northwest Ohio village of Bluffton.
The baseball team's schedule had the team playing in the Gene Cusic Classic in Fort Myers, Fla., March 5-9.
