The Secret Language of Signs
By Eric Hill • Mar 2nd, 2010 • Category: Advice, Branta Recommends, Brave New World, Essays, From the Interweb, TravelThey’re the most useful thing you pay no attention to. Start paying attention.
Three years ago today, the 33 members of the Bluffton University baseball team boarded a bus at their campus in Bluffton, Ohio. It was early evening, and the college students had a long night ahead of them—an 18-hour ride, punctuated only by bathroom breaks, fuel stops, and a planned breakfast at McDonald’s. But their destination was enticing: Sarasota, Fla., which promised sunshine and the first game of their season.
After an uneventful overnight drive, the bus stopped in Adairsville, Ga., to pick up a fresh driver, then headed south on I-75, eventually entering the HOV lane. As the bus rolled closer to Atlanta, it neared the turn-off for Northside Drive,* the first of several left-hand HOV exits that dot that stretch of highway. The driver, Jerome Niemeyer, should have kept right where the road split, continuing toward Florida in the HOV through-lane. Instead, he took the left-hand exit ramp at highway speed, apparently mistaking it for a regular lane. At the ramp’s end, he drove through a stop sign and four lanes of traffic before careening into a retaining wall and flipping onto the highway 19 feet below.
The accident killed seven people—five of the Bluffton players, the bus driver, and his wife, Jean, who was along to keep him company. When the National Transportation Safety Board investigated, it blamed the crash in part on Georgia’s failure to install adequate signs.
Read part one and two of the series starting here.
Parts three through six will appear between now and March 11th.
Eric Hill is the editor of branta.
Email this author | All posts by Eric Hill
