GA DOT withholds comments in deadly bus crash

Officials with the Georgia Department of Transportation say they’ll reserve comment on the NTSB’s findings until all pending lawsuits are settled. That could be several years from now, as the deadline to file a lawsuit in this case is March 2009.

Seven people, including five teammates from Ohio’s Blufton University heading to a baseball tournament in Florida, died in the March 2007 crash in an Atlanta highway overpass. Twenty-eight passengers were injured, seven seriously when their bus crashed onto I-75, after the bus driver drove through a stop sign and mistook an HOV lane for an exit lane.

NTSB officials say a combination of driver error and poorly placed road signs contributed to the deadly crash. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board says enhanced safety equipment could have minimized the losses.

In a written statement, DOT Commissioner Gena Abraham says her department quote heard quite clearly the recommendations of the National Transportation Safety Board and that the DOT is taking very serious the loss of life.

Following the accident, DOT officials changed the placement of signs at the Howell Street exit on I-75 in Atlanta, and installed a flashing light to warn drivers of the upcoming HOV lane.