WASHINGTON, D.C. (Aug. 20, 2008) — The National Transportation Safety Board has recommended a number of changes to highway signage in response to a motorcoach crash that killed five members of a college baseball team, their driver and his wife.

On March 2, 2007, the motorcoach, which was carrying 33 members of the Bluffton University baseball team, overrode a bridge wall and fell 19 feet onto the southbound lanes of the Interstate 75 outside Atlanta, Ga. In addition to the seven killed, seven were seriously injured and 21 received minor injuries.

According to an NTSB report released last month, the driver most likely mistook an interstate High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV)-only left exit ramp for an HOV through lane. In their new recommendations, the NTSB called on the Federal Highway Administration to require HOV-only exit lanes to be marked with left messages and arrows. The NTSB recommended the Manual on Uniform Traffic Control Devices also include a speed-limit advisory. Read the complete recommendations to the Federal Highway Administation online [PDF].

NTSB also issued a series of parallel recommendations to the Georgia Department of Transportation, including installing "LEFT" message plaques for left interstate exits, including the exit where the crash occurred. The NTSB also recommended a speed limit advisory. Read the complete recommendations to Georgia online [PDF].

According to Joe Scesney, an investigator with the New York Department of Transportation, the design of motorcoaches makes the vehicles particularly prone to passenger ejection in rollover crashes. Last year a federal bill that called for the installation of seat belts, rollover and interior fire protection and updating window glazing polices on motorcoaches failed to make it out of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.