Niemeyer, Jerome (1942-2007)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 2007 Mar 12 p. 1

Birth date: 1942

text of obituary:

Six die in Bluffton University team bus crash

Four students killed in accident during baseball squad's spring break trip

By Robert Rhodes

Mennonite Weekly Review

BLUFFTON, Ohio — In the chaos of the moments after the predawn crash, members of the Bluffton University baseball team tried to do the impossible: Lift their toppled bus from the shattered bodies of their teammates.

"We had guys stuck under the bus — legs, arms — and we had guys trying to pick the bus up," shortstop Ryan Baightel, 21 told the Toledo Blade newpaper.

The crash occurred around 5:30 a.m. March 2, when a chartered bus carrying the Bluffton Beavers men's baseball team plunged 30 feet from an overpass onto Interstate 75 near downtown Atlanta. The team was on its way to play Eastern Mennonite University at Sarasota, Fla., before playing several more games in a spring break tournament at Gainesville, Fla.

Killed were bus driver Jerome Niemeyer, 65, of Columbus Grove and his wife, Jean, 61; and Bluffton players Tyler Williams, 19, of Lima; Cody Holp, 19, of Arcanum; David Betts, 20, of Bryan, a member of Zion Mennonite Church in Archbold; and Scott Harmon, 19, of Lima.

Nearly a dozen of the 35 people on the bus were seriously injured in the crash, including Bluffton coach James Grandey, 29, who underwent facial surgery at Atlanta's Piedmont Hospital.

The bus had left Bluffton the previous night. Authorities said the charter, operated by Executive Coach Luxury Travel in Ottawa, plunged from the overpass after the driver apparently mistook an exit ramp for a regular lane.

In the predawn darkness, the bus, traveling at 60 mph, collided with a three-foot-high concrete barrier and tore through a fence before hitting the interstate 30 feet below.

The bus came to rest on the driver's side, spilling diesel fuel and scattering luggage and sports equipment in the road.

Four Bluffton players reportedly were thrown from the bus while it was still on the overpass.

"Guys were actually off the bus but came back," injured Bluffton player A. J. Ramthun told the Blade of the scene after the crash. "With three inches of diesel fuel running off onto the highway that we had to crawl through and walk through to get to safety, and guys were still running back in trying to help. . . . They were trying to get back to them, trying to lift the bus the bus off of them."

As news of the crash spread and the injured were taken to several Atlanta medical center — including Grady Memorial Hospital, the city's trauma cent — members of the Atlanta Mennonite community began to respond.

At Grady hospital, chaplain Susan Gascho, a former pastor at Atlanta Mennonite Fellowship, worked intensively with the crash survivors and their families.