Lawsuits Filed in Bluffton University Baseball Crash

Posted on Dec 01, 2007

On March 2, 2007, a charter bus carrying members of the Bluffton University baseball team to spring training in Florida fell off an overpass in Atlanta. Five students, the bus driver and his wife were killed. Twenty-eight others were injured.

Now, attorneys want a federal court to decide if the members of the team involved in the crash are entitled to insurance money. A lawsuit filed on behalf of Bluffton University's players and coaches seeks to confirm the bus driver and the busing company were covered in the March accident.

The October filing in the U.S. District Court claims that the bus company and driver were insured under policies issued to the university and the injured victims are entitled to recover damages. The lawsuit also states that the insurance companies-- Hartford Fire Insurance Co., American Alternative Insurance Corp., and Federal Insurance Co. -- have not recognized the driver or company as being covered under estimated policies. Representatives of all three insurers said they could not comment on the lawsuit.

A separate lawsuit against the company that made the bus, the university, the city of Atlanta and the company that provided the bus and driver to the team, has already been filed by the mother of one of the deceased players seeking unspecified damages.

Investigators claim that the bus driver may have mistaken an exit ramp for a highway lane, but the National Transportation Safety Board has not made any finding on the crash's cause. The board's final accident report is expected next spring.