Friday, March 2, 2007

6 Killed In College Bus Crash


Early this morning in Ohio, a very horrific event took place.

As the Bluffton College baseball team traveled to their 1st game against the Gators, they crashed. The team bus went off a highway ramp and plunged onto a pickup truck and a road of concrete. 6 people lost their lives in that crash - the bus drivers (
Jerome and Jean Niemeyer) and 4 players (David Betts and Tyler Williams; freshmen Scott Harmon and Cody Holp. 29 other got injured in the accident. The bus landed on a pickup truck also which may of caused more fatalities then there should of been. Fortunately, the motorist survived the crash. He said to the media, "When I saw the thing coming, I think I closed my eyes and stepped on the gas," said Danny Lloyd, who was driving the truck and escaped uninjured. "It looked to me like a big slab of concrete falling down."

18 year old second baseman A.J Ramthun said to the media,
"I just looked out and saw the road coming up at me. I remember the catcher tapping me on the head, telling me to get out because there was gas all over," he told reporters. His brother fell out of the bus and was stuck under the vehicle. He faces possibly life long problems with his hip. "He might not recover from that," Ramthun said. He said his own collarbone was broken and he had to get stitches in his face. I heard some guys crying, "I'm stuck, I'm stuck," while the rest of the team helped the most injured players off the bus, said Ramthun, from Springfield, Ohio. It was what you'd expect out of any college team -- more concern for others than you have about yourself."

The team is probably not going to play another game for a long time because of this crash. We will try to keep these players in mind and hope for the best.

Tyler Williams (Lima, Ohio); David Betts (Bryan, Ohio); Scott Harmon (Lima, Ohio) and Cody Holp (Arcanum, Ohio); , Jerome Niemeyer, and his wife, Jean Niemeyer, both of Columbus Grove, Ohio.

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