[Fumblerooskies]

...Please pray for all involved. This is a terrible tragedy.

6 killed after bus carrying baseball team drives off ramp
3/2/2007, 8:39 a.m. ET
By DANIEL YEE
The Associated Press

ATLANTA (AP) — 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," he said. "It's hard to describe. The bus is completely annihilated."

Robin Bowlus, a college spokeswoman, said she couldn't confirm whether the bus was the one that left Bluffton at 7 p.m. on Thursday but she hasn't been able to reach anyone who had been on the team bus by cell phone.

The team, which went 17-21 last season, 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.

Cobb said 12 to 15 people were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta.

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

Cobb said the bus was coming southbound on I-75. When it 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.

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

___

On the Net:

http://www.bluffton.edu

http://www.cleveland.com/newsflash/clev ... =cleveland

[PAmedic]

saw that on ESPN- very very sad

my thoughts and prayers with the families of all involved

[Sly Fox]

Its been all over the news channels all day ... particularly CNN due to its proximity to Atlanta. What a horrendous event.

As for Bluffton, its a tiny community that essentially is the college and not much more. They will be grieving for a long time.