National Transportation Safety Board

Motorcoach Override of Elevated Exit Ramp, Interstate 75, Atlanta, Georgia, March 2, 2007: Highway Accident Report Ntsb / Har-08/01 National Transportation Safety Board

Publisher Marketing: This document details the incident on Friday, March 2, 2007, where a 2000 VanHool T2145 57-passenger motorcoach operated by Executive Coach Luxury Travel, Inc., transporting 33 members of the Bluffton University baseball team, the driver, and his wife, was traveling south on Interstate 75 in Atlanta, Georgia. According to witnesses, the motorcoach was in the southbound high occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane at milepost 250 when it departed the interstate, traveling at highway speed, onto the HOV-only left exit ramp to Northside Drive. The exit ramp came to an end at the stop sign-controlled T-intersection with Northside Drive. As the motorcoach entered the intersection at an estimated speed of 50 to 60 mph, the driver steered to the right and collided with the reinforced portland cement concrete bridge wall and chain-link security fence located along the southern edge of the eastbound lanes of the overpass. The motorcoach then overrode the bridge rail, rotated clockwise, and fell 19 feet onto the southbound lanes of the interstate. The motorcoach came to rest on its left side (driver's side), perpendicular to the southbound lanes of Interstate 75. Major safety issues identified in this accident include inadequate HOV traffic control devices, inadequate motor carrier driver oversight, lack of event data recorders on motorcoaches, and lack of motorcoach occupant protection. As a result of its investigation, the Safety Board makes recommendations to the Federal Highway Administration and to the Georgia Department of Transportation. The Safety Board also reiterates four previous recommendations to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.