NTSB faults driver, lax laws in bus crash

WASHINGTON, July 9 (UPI) -- U.S. transportation officials say confusing highway signs and driver error were the main factors behind an Atlanta bus crash that killed seven people last year.

But investigators from the National Transportation Safety Board also blamed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for failing to implement its 1999 recommendations to require seat belts in motor coach-style buses, The Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch reported Wednesday.

The crash killed five members of the Bluffton University baseball team on their way from Ohio to Florida. Authorities said they, driver Jerome Niemeyer, 65, and his wife died on Interstate 75 in Atlanta when the bus failed to stop and the top of a high-occupancy vehicle lane exit ramp and plunged 19 feet to the road below.

The newspaper said Niemeyer was faulted for not properly following somewhat confusing signs on the exit ramp and failing to slow as he drove up the ramp, which he apparently thought was a through lane.

Federal legislation co-authored by U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, would mandate the NTSB recommendations for seat belts and window and roof reinforcements in motor coaches, the Dispatch said.