College mourns after 6 killed in bus plunge

The driver and his wife were wearing seat belts, Higgins said, but it was not known if any of the passengers were. Motorcoaches like the one involved typically do not have seat belts in the passenger section. Calls to the charter company, Executive Coach Luxury Travel Inc. of Ottawa, Ohio, were not immediately returned.

A statement headlined “We Grieve” on the company’s Web site said in red letters: “We at Executive Coach Luxury Travel Inc. are deeply saddened by this travesty. We are continuing to cooperate with the officials investigating the accident in Atlanta, Ga. Our thoughts and prayers are with all of the victims and their families.”

The university identified the victims as sophomores David Betts and Tyler Williams; freshmen Scott Harmon and Cody Holp; and bus drivers Jerome and Jean Niemeyer, all of them from Ohio.

“This is deeply impacting all of our students, faculty and staff. We know these people on a first-name basis,” said James Harder, the school’s president. “For now we’re pulling together and supporting each other as best we can.”

Heading to first game
The baseball team had been scheduled to play its first game of the season in Sarasota, Fla., on Saturday and had eight more games scheduled in Fort Myers, Fla.

The university is affiliated with the Mennonite Church USA. About one-fifth of the students are Mennonite, and the school stresses spirituality, but it is open to all religious backgrounds.

The church emphasizes pacifism and nonviolence. But unlike adherents of more conservative Mennonite denominations and the Amish, members wear modern clothing and use electricity. Smoking and drinking are banned on campus.

At a campus chapel service the night before the bus trip, students had prayed for safe travel for their sports teams and other students during spring break.

“Sometimes you take that stuff for granted,” said Katie Barrington, a junior from Brooklyn Heights, Ohio.

Bluffton football players were working out in the weight room when they saw news of the crash on TV and recognized the logo on the bus as the company that all the school’s sports teams have used, assistant football coach Steve Rogers said.

“That’s when reality hit everybody,” he said. “Everybody was in shock. Nobody knew what to say or what to feel.” He added: “It hits home harder than it would if it had happened at a bigger school. Everybody knows each other.”

Matt Ferguson, a freshman baseball player from Pleasant Hill, Ohio, said most of the freshmen had stayed behind.

“We were bummed out we didn’t get to go,” he said. “Now, we don’t know what to think.”

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