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Bluffton College Baseball Bus wreck

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leisou32;769154; said:
I went to high school with AJ and Mike Ramthun (AJ did the interview this morning) and being from a small town this has been very scary. AJ seems to be ok physically but I have not heard much about Mike. I pray for all involved and their families and for Mike and AJ's parents who are great people.
Click to expand...

Hey if you hear anything about Mike please let me know. I was his
science teacher and basketball coach in 8th grade. We were fairly close. I've only talked to him a few times since his family left the district, but have to admit that im kind of worried. Thanks.
 
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Bluffton players put lives at risk to aid others

By STEVE EDER
BLADE STAFF WRITER

ATLANTA ? The 2007 Bluffton University baseball squad had not yet played a game as a team, but when its chartered bus crashed on an Atlanta highway before dawn Friday, the players put their own lives on the line as they rallied to rescue each other from the wreckage, even as diesel fuel leaked onto the pavement.

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AJC

In Bluffton, words of comfort at tearful church service

By ANDREA JONES
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/04/07 BLUFFTON, Ohio ? At the First Mennonite Church in chilly downtown Bluffton Sunday, six white candles flickered on the altar in memory of those who died in the bus crash in Atlanta.
Louise Wideman, the associate pastor of the yellow brick church just two blocks from Bluffton University, told the congregation that many had reached out to the church in comfort.
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Keith Hadley / AJCBob Ramseyer weeps as his wife, Alice, talks to an interviewer about their grandson, David Betts, who was killed in Friday's bus crash, after church services at the First Mennonite Church in Bluffton, Ohio on Sunday.

"In a time of great loss, it is amazing to learn of the support from all over the country," she said.
Emails have poured in from far and wide since the bus carrying the Bluffton baseball team crashed on I-75 Friday early morning. Mennonites around the country held services. The community was grieving, she said, and pulling together.
At the Bluffton church Sunday, church member Carrie Kruse invited children to the front of the altar for a special lesson. She told a story about overcoming fear with God's love, spreading out a pink comforter that the children gathered under. She asked them to wrap their arms around themselves and pray.
"There was a very, very bad accident on Friday," she told them, describing how the Bluffton team must have felt frightened.
 
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AJC

Bluffton coach stable after surgery
Injuries included several jaw fractures, a broken nose and cheekbone injuries

Published on: 03/04/07 Bluffton University baseball coach James Grandey, 29, was in stable condition late Sunday afternoon after coming out of facial surgery at Piedmont Hospital.
"It's stable and he's doing ok," his father, Jim Grandey said at a news conference outside Piedmont before 6 p.m. "We're just thankful that this wasn't any worse than it was. ... We're feeling very relieved."
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Jenni Girtman/Staff
Jim Grandey, father of Bluffton University baseball team head coach, gave an update on his son after his surgery Sunday.

James Grandey was injured Friday morning when a bus carrying the Bluffton baseball team from Ohio plunged off an overpass on Northside Drive onto I-75. The bus driver, his wife and four players died in the crash. They were on their way to Florida.
James Grandey was able to talk a little bit Sunday, his father said. He had been unable to talk earlier because he had "tubes and stuff," his father said. James Grandey sustained several fractures in his jaw, a broken nose and injuries on his cheekbone. His right ankle may be dislocated.

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AJC

Answers few as bus victims return home

By ARIEL HART , JENNIFER BRETT, AIXA PASCUAL, ANDREA JONES
Published on: 03/05/07 A federal transportation official said Sunday she plans to talk to Georgia officials about making changes to the I-75 exit where a bus full of college baseball players from Ohio crashed Friday, killing six people.
"I will certainly talk to the state people to see whether there's anything they can do as an interim measure so that it's not business as usual there," National Transportation Safety board member Kitty Higgins said at a Sunday press conference.
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Mikki K. Harris/Staff
At the site of the crash Nicole Wingfield, who does not know anyone involved, prays for the families of those hurt or killed.
Higgins said investigators were told by a witness on the Florida-bound bus that the driver was neither on a cellphone nor using a CB radio when the bus careened through the overpass of I-75 at Northside Drive at 5:38 a.m., falling 30 feet.
And an examination of the bus revealed no problems with the brakes, steering, tires or suspension, said Higgins. "The vehicle performed as it should have."


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Dispatch

82 other wrecks reported at ramp

Georgia officials don?t plan immediate changes to exit; Bluffton players start home

By Daniel Yee and John Seewer
Associated Press
Monday, March 5, 2007

Georgia transportation officials said yesterday that they had no immediate plans to add safety signs to or close the highway exit ramp where a bus carrying a college baseball team crashed and killed six people, including the driver.

The state Transportation Department wants to see recommendations from the National Transportation Safety Board before adding any new safety devices such as signs or stoplights to the I-75 ramp, spokesman David Spear said.​

"We won't wait until their final published report. If during the course of their conversations it might make this better, we're going to act on it," he said.

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Columbus Dispatch - Buckeye Extra

Relative of Butler was killed in bus crash
Buckeye preferred not to tell his teammates
Thursday, March 08, 2007
Bob Baptist
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Jamar Butler said he found out Saturday morning.

Being as placid as he is, no one suspected anything out of the ordinary when the Ohio State men?s basketball team finished the regular season later in the day at Michigan. Butler was on the floor for all but five minutes of the game and made pivotal plays down the stretch to help rally the Buckeyes to victory.

"That?s what I love about him. He?s as stoic as stoic can be," coach Thad Matta said.

Butler said yesterday that his teammates still don?t know that Tyler Williams, one of four Bluffton University baseball players who died in a bus crash Friday in Atlanta, was his second cousin. Butler?s father and Williams? mother are first cousins.

"It affected me a little, but I?m not the type of person that shows that much (emotion)," Butler said. "Being around the guys, I just tried to do my normal daily routine and tried to put it behind me."

Butler said no one on the team was aware he was related to Williams until trainer Vince O?Brien asked him if he knew anyone on the Bluffton team. Butler is from Lima, as was Williams, and Bluffton is about halfway between Lima and Findlay.

"I told him Tyler was my cousin," Butler said.

Cont.
 
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