From CNN.com
ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- At least six people were killed when a charter bus carrying a college baseball team from Ohio fell from an overpass onto Interstate 75 early Friday in Atlanta, police said.
Twenty-nine people were injured, including three critically, hospital officials said.
The bus was carrying 35 people, most of them students from Bluffton University in Bluffton, Ohio, Atlanta police spokesman Joe Cobb said. (Watch as a police spokesman describes the "walking wounded" Video)
The fatalities included the bus driver, his wife and four students, Cobb said.
Nineteen students were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital, the city's trauma center, where three were in critical condition, Grady officials said.
Grady's Dr. Leon Haley said two of the 19 students had been taken to surgery. Another student, in critical condition, was awaiting a bed in the intensive care unit. The injuries for the other 16 were mild to moderate, Haley said.
Officials at Piedmont Hospital said three people had been brought to the emergency room with "slight" injuries. Atlanta Medical Center reported receiving seven students. Four were in good condition, and three were in the intensive care unit, according to a hospital representative.
At Grady, Bluffton freshman A.J. Ramthun, 18, said he and other baseball players were asleep when the crash happened.
"I just wish there was something I could do for the families who lost their loved ones, " said Ramthun, a second baseman from Springfield, Ohio.
"This is something that's not going to leave the guys who were on that bus this morning. This is going to be with us forever. ... We've been a family for the last five months."
Describing the crash, Ramthun said, "The bus landed on the left side, the side I was sitting on. I just looked out and saw the road coming up after me."
The student, who broke his collarbone, described himself as "one of the lucky ones."
He said his older brother had been trapped under the bus and suffered hip damage. "He might not recover from that," he said.
HOV lane confusion?
The crash occurred just before dawn, around 5:30 a.m., north of downtown Atlanta.
The bus exited I-75 southbound in an HOV lane in the center of the highway that leads onto a bridge at Northside Drive. The bus apparently did not stop at the top of the exit ramp and plunged off the bridge onto the southbound lanes of the expressway, according to two drivers, whose vehicles were hit by the bus or debris falling off it. (Watch as police explain how confusion over the HOV lane and exit may have led to the crash Video)
An Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter said he saw the wreck during his morning commute and initially thought it was a jack-knifed tractor-trailer before realizing it was a bus.
"There were young people crawling out of the bus. I just tried to help them as best I could," reporter Mike Morris said.
A driver told The Associated Press that his pickup was damaged when the bus smashed through a barrier and plunged onto the interstate.
"When I saw the thing coming, I think I closed my eyes and stepped on the gas," Danny Lloyd, who escaped uninjured, told the AP. "It looked to me like a big slab of concrete falling down."
The Executive Coach Luxury Travel Inc. bus was carrying members of the Bluffton University baseball team, which according to its Web site, was scheduled to play Eastern Mennonite University on Saturday in Sarasota, Florida, before heading to a tournament in Fort Myers, Florida.
School president: 'Sad tragedy' for students
Bluffton University is a Mennonite Church USA affiliated-school 50 miles south of Toledo, Ohio. The community held a prayer vigil at the university, CNN affiliate WTOL reported. It was the last day of classes before spring break. Classes were canceled.
"This is a sad tragedy for the students, families, friends and Bluffton University campus community," President James M. Harder said in a posting on the school's Web site, whose server was experiencing difficulties due to the heavy volume of hits. "We are asking for prayers of support during this time."
Also posted was a picture of members of the baseball team kneeling on the field in prayer.
"We truly are a close-knit community," Harder said at a press conference at Bluffton. "... We know these students on a first-name basis."
Harder said the university hasn't received any official information yet from Atlanta police. "The minute we have official information we'll be in close communication" with parents and students, he said.
Bluffton football players were working out in the weight room Friday morning when they learned the news about the crash, assistant football coach Steve Rogers told the AP. He said the players started trying to call friends they knew who played on the baseball team, the AP reported.
"It hits home harder than it would if it had happened at a bigger school. Everybody knows each other," Rogers told the AP.
James Grandey, the father of the team's coach, said his son, also named James, sustained injuries to one of his legs. The senior Grandey was interviewed by telephone from his home in Ohio.
Grady's Haley said the youth and conditioning of the baseball players would help in their recovery.
"The fact that they're young men, athletes will certainly help them in the long run," Haley said. "... From a starting point, they're all pretty good."
Haley added that "they're pretty calm, they're asking the appropriate questions. ... They're very aware of what's going on."
The wreck snarled morning rush-hour traffic in Atlanta.
Aerial footage from the scene showed a mangled barrier fence on the bridge above the bus. Debris and luggage were scattered around the bus, and at least nine fire trucks were at the scene.
Georgia Department of Transportation cameras showed the bus lying on its side in the southbound lane of the expressway. Firefighters surrounded the bus.
The wreck closed I-75 in both directions, police said. Police later re-opened the northbound lanes. Rescuers also brought the bus upright, and it was loaded on a truck and towed away about 10 a.m.
The National Transportation Safety Board said it would investigate the crash because it involved a charter bus.
AirTran Airways said it will offer free flights between Ohio and Atlanta to families of those involved in the crash.
Families can call an American Red Cross center, at (404) 870 4440, for information.
CNN's Tristan Smith contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report.
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