Some of you have heard the news of the accident involving the Bluffton
University Baseball Team, and you have correctly identified that it is
the school where I teach. Some of you have sent condolences. Thank
you.
We are just beginning spring break, and the team was on their way to
Florida for spring training and scrimmage games. They were in a
chartered bus that appears to have accidentally taken an exit from
Interstate-75 as they were approaching Atlanta, Georgia. It appears the
driver thought he was still in the special "high occupancy express lane"
and therefore was going too fast for the exit. The bus went over a
bridge rail, flipped over, and landed on its side on the regular I-75
lanes below. Four students were killed and the bus driver and the
driver's wife were also killed. Nine students are critically injured,
some in intensive care. The remaining 20 students and coaching staff
are injured but not critical.
Since we are a small school, I have had several of the baseball players
in one or more of my classes. I just learned that one of the four
students who died was the one baseball player currently enrolled in my
sophomore physics class. When we return to classes on March 12 it is
going to be difficult to take attendance.
Michael D. Edmiston, Ph.D.
Professor of Physics and Chemistry
Bluffton University
Bluffton, OH 45817
(419)-358-3270
edmiston@bluffton.edu