State Pays $3-M To Bus Crash Victims

The state of Georgia has paid the maximum legal settlement--$3 million--to victims of the wreck of the Bluffton University baseball team bus accident two years ago. The wreck killed five baseball players, the bus driver and his wife. State law limits Georgia's liability to $3 million per occurrence, no matter how many are injured.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators said the bus driver thought he was staying in an HOV lane on Interstate 75 when he drove onto an exit ramp just north of Atlanta, plowing through a stop sign at highway speed and off of a bridge at the top of the ramp.

The NTSB released recommendations in August urging more clear and consistent highway signs.

Plane crash victim identified

A teen-age employee of a Georgia aviation company was identified today as the pilot who died when his plane crashed into the side of a synagogue in Augusta.

Ron Baker, 19, was flying a single-engine Piper Arrow when it crashed last night at Congregation Children of Israel's Walton Way Temple, according to the Associated Press.

Baker worked for Phoenix Air of Cartersville.

No one on the ground was injured.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash.