13abc reports from Atlanta

Tuesday, March 06, 2007

It was a very emotional moment. You could see emotion on the faces of the families on the tarmac at Toledo Express. Once the plane landed, there were plenty of hugs and kisses. There were 40 people aboard the flight at 4 p.m.. It's been days since families have seen their loved ones. Once off the plane, there were plenty of long embraces. It was 48 hours since they boarded the trip to Atlanta. Also on the plane this afternoon were the bodies of two of the victims. One of which was David Betts, a Bryan high school graduate.

Six of those players and coaches are still in Atlanta tonight recovering. School officials say no funeral services have been set yet, but they do plan on holding memorial services.

John Betts will never forget his son David. He flew back to Toledo wearing his baseball cap which still smells of diesel fuel. The father said, "It was taken by one of the players and given to me and I'm very proud of that. He was very proud that he was going to be starting the first game on Saturday. He was very proud of that. And he did not tell his father or his grandfather that; he wanted to surprise us."

However, Dad intends to tell everyone about his son because he believes David would have wanted it. He said, "He died doing what he loved. And who he enjoyed being with, and I think that's a very important part for us as a family to know that he was very, very happy in the last moments and seconds of his life ." Betts also wanted to extend his thanks to the community of Atlanta, both the doctors and th citizens, there in the city. He says their support and their generosity is another part of this tragedy that he will never forget.

Again four students, two from the Lima area, one from Bryan and one from Arcanum did not walk off that plane today. They were killed in the crash. Tyler Williams was a sophomore outfielder who attended Lima high school. Scott Harmon attended Lima. Cody Holp was a freshman pitcher just outside of Dayton. Baseball starts tomorrow at Lima high school, where Tyler Williams played ball. Counselors are there to support the team."

13 abc traveled to Atlanta this weekend. We wanted to get a sense of the crash site for ourselves. We wanted to give you a sense of what may have caused that deadly team tragedy as road crews and investigators continued working at the scene GDOT crews are still preparing the site of the bus crash for the time of Monday morning rush. They are continuing to survey the site, trying to figure out if the driver here made a mistake. We drove the very same rout the bus driver took. Riding in the HOV lane in the left-hand side, he would be keeping pace with traffic, zipping along at about 70 miles an hour at 5:30 in the morning. The NTSB wonders if he considered his lane to be an an elevated HOV entrance ramp. It's not. It's an exit ramp and drivers are supposed to stop at the top. The the NTSB believes perhaps the bus driver simply didn't notice the stop sign, crossed the six lanes of traffic before over correcting, smashing through the barrier, then crashing onto the roadway below. Most of the players and coaches were asleep on the bus and it crashed before many of the players had a chance to react.

GDOT said late today they have no plans to change the intersection. NTSB want drivers to get in touch with them.

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