Georgia To Add Safety Measures After Crash

Highway Officials To Incease Exit-Lane Safety Measures After Baseball Team Bus Crash Killed 7

(AP)  Georgia highway officials investigating a deadly bus crash said Tuesday they would add safety measures to several commuter-lane exits like the one the baseball team's bus had taken before it plunged off an overpass two weeks ago.

Seven people on the bus died, five of them baseball players from Bluffton University in Ohio.

Georgia Department of Transportation spokesman David Spear said the state would be adding signs and reflective striping to seven similar ramps starting Wednesday.

The bus driver apparently mistook one of the Atlanta-area commuter-lane exit ramps for a lane, officials said. The bus crossed through a T-intersection at the top of the ramp and careered over the retaining wall of the overpass to the interstate, 30 feet below. The driver and his wife died in the crash.

Spear declined to say whether the new safety measures could have prevented the March 2 wreck.

He said Commissioner Harold Linnenkohl decided to make the safety changes based on recommendations from department engineers after the bus wreck.

The changes can be made quickly and without having to get permits to add overhead signs or other devices, Spear said. More significant alterations to the ramps could come with time after engineers study the exits more, he said.

Chester Slabaugh, whose son Allen was thrown from the bus but not seriously injured, said the parents will watch to see what changes are made.

"At least they're trying to do something," he said. "I'll give them credit for that."

The National Transportation Safety Board continues to investigate the accident.

"Anything that can be done now to prevent future accidents is significant," said Bluffton University President James Harder.