Atlanta police today released three reports on accidents at Interstate 75 and Northside Drive between 2002 and 2003.
Each accident involved drivers who did not know they left the I-75 HOV lane before they crashed.
Five years ago, Catherine Hartman and her husband were in an accident at the same spot after she mistook an exit ramp for a commuter lane.
Today, with her left knee still not healed from the 2002 accident, she says she feels upset and sick that more has not been done to prevent accidents there.
Investigators said in the Bluffton University accident on March 2, the driver of the motor coach carrying the Ohio team also apparently mistook the high-occupancy vehicle exit ramp for a highway lane and overshot a stop sign at the top of the ramp.
The bus slammed into the concrete barrier before flipping and falling 30 feet onto a highway below. Six people were killed and 28 people were hospitalized. One of the injured died a week later, bringing the death toll to seven.
Not including the March 2 Bluffton University bus accident, the Georgia Department of Transportation said there have been two deaths from seven accidents involving the HOV exit ramp in the last nine years.
The Georgia transportation department still has no plans to close the ramp.
Spokesman David Spear says the agency is trying to ``come up with potential additions'' to alert drivers, including additional signs or traffic control devices.
http://accesswdun.com/article/2007/3/93472