Friday's deadly crash at the HOV ramp on Northside Drive was the latest of a few similar incidents — two fatal — at that I-75 exit in recent years.

Each echoes the bus crash that killed four baseball players from Bluffton University in Ohio, their 65-year-old bus driver and his wife.

Kimberly Smith/Staff (ENLARGE)

Peggy Lunsford (left), her sister Mary Lunsford, and Mary's daughter Cynthia Lunsford (in photo they are holding) crashed at I-75's Northside Drive HOV exit in 2001. Cynthia died from her injuries.

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Most of the drivers in the earlier incidents likewise were bound for Florida. Many were trying to navigate the high-occupancy vehicle lane at night. Most of the drivers were senior citizens. And none of the drivers intended to take the left-hand exit, thinking they were still on the interstate.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reviewed 82 accident reports related to crashes in the area of the Northside Drive HOV exit. Five were related to driver confusion about that ramp. State officials have said the ramp met all requirements when it was designed in 1982, and officials have no plans to make changes at the site. Those involved in three of the incidents told a reporter their stories.

'Lord help us'

Cynthia Lunsford, her mother Mary and aunt Peggy were excited about the Florida vacation they were headed for on Aug. 11, 2002. Cynthia was behind the wheel of the Ford Windstar as they made their way from Ringgold in North Georgia. It was the first vacation Cynthia had taken in a while. Peggy was in the back seat sitting next to an ice cooler they'd packed for the journey. Mary sat next to her daughter and they were all laughing and talking. About 9:40 a.m., none of them realized that Cynthia was zooming not down the HOV lane at Northside Drive but up the HOV exit.

"We didn't see the signs to stop until we were up on them," Mary Lunsford said. "It looked like another lane until we got to that stop sign. I wouldn't have known the difference between the lanes."

Mary and Peggy screamed that there was a stop sign ahead.

"I said, 'Lord help us, we're gonna hit that wall or we're gonna flip,' " Peggy said.

Cynthia banked hard right, but it was too late and the van crumbled against the concrete wall on the opposite side of the bridge.

Peggy had a gash in her forehead and had broken ribs. Mary's face immediately began to bruise from the impact of the air bag. Cynthia took the brunt of the crash when her side of the car hit the wall. She had to be taken out from the passenger side of the van. She endured hours of surgery at Grady Memorial Hospital. She died the next day. Peggy said her niece never resumed consciousness.

None of them had been wearing seat belts, Mary said.

Both Mary and Peggy had heard of the baseball team involved in a fatal wreck in Atlanta. Not until the women told their story this week did they realize it was the same exit.

"I don't feel better about it, but at least I know we weren't the only ones that did that," Mary Lunsford said.

'Then you are gone'

I-75 wasn't part of Om Dunna's regular driving route, but it was the route he took from his home in Newnan on trips to Nashville to visit friends.

He and his wife Krishna were coming back from one of those Tennessee trips on Oct. 17, 1999. Dunna and his wife were on the last leg of the drive home about 9 p.m. Om Dunna was driving, he and Krishna locked in with seat belts. Moving along in the HOV lane, they neared Northside Drive.

"I was not very sure it was an exit," Dunna said. "It was sort of confusing."

In seconds they were at the stop sign at the ramp's end.

"I tried to brake the car and because of the speed, it skid," Dunna said.

The car's air bags deployed. The Dunnas were not injured, but their Nissan Altima was a complete loss. And they were thankful Om didn't hit any other cars as his car skidded across the road.

After the Bluffton University team's bus accident, Dunna's son told Om that it was exactly where his parents crashed. Now 66, Om Dunna said he can't understand the logic of a left-hand exit off an HOV lane.

"It's absolutely the wrong thing," Dunna said. "It is too dangerous. If they take the exit through to a bridge, and they don't slow down, then you are gone. Out of a little mistake has happened a big thing."

'Blessed to be alive'

For years, Catherine Hartman and her husband Robert drove from their home in Carmel, Ind., for vacations in Florida. Sometimes, as in January 2002, they would stop overnight in Canton, where they had relatives. The couple left Canton that Jan. 20 before dawn, thinking the freeways through Atlanta at that time would be about as clear of traffic as they ever would be.

Catherine Hartman, 70, was driving the Toyota Sienna minivan as she and Robert made their way down I-75. Hartman moved to the far left of the highway because with two in the van they qualified to ride in the high-occupancy vehicle lane. As they neared Northside Drive, Catherine Hartman noticed that the HOV lane seemed to split again. Confused, she moved farther left thinking the outermost lane must surely be the correct one. At 4 a.m., it was dark and Hartman had trouble reading all the little black and white signs on the lane. She was moving at highway speed when she realized a stop sign was immediately on her right.

Though the couple was wearing seat belts, Robert instinctively used his left hand to brace against the dashboard as the car sliced across Northside Drive and careened into the overpass wall. The impact shattered bones in his hand. Catherine banged up her legs and knees.

Their son, Mark, arrived from Carmel just hours after the crash to be with his parents, particularly since his father had to have surgery. To this day, he remembers his mother saying that in the moments after impact she looked down over the overpass wall to the traffic below. "She thought she was still on the interstate and had been in a Spaghetti Junction accident," Mark Hartman said.

"These are two great drivers who I don't think had as much as a speeding ticket between them," he said. "So there's no way that's a good design, a left-hand exit with a short ramp with small signs. There's no way that's great design because otherwise there'd be ramps like that all over the country." Even though his brother and sister-in-law are lawyers, the family didn't think to pursue legal action. They considered it just one horrible accident that ended their parents' annual trips to Florida.

Catherine Hartman, now 75, said she was heartsick when she heard that six people had perished at the same intersection just five years after her accident.

"It's a tragedy that should not have happened," she said. "Flashing yellow warning lights could be placed some distance before the exit ramp, rumble strips would be helpful, but just better overall lighting and signage would be very, very helpful," she said.

"It was a horrible experience and we're just blessed to be alive."

OTHER ACCIDENTS

Those involved in the other two similar accidents either couldn't be reached or were unable to elaborate on the basic information provided in accident reports:

• Feb. 24, 2001, about 10 p.m.

• Driver, Doris Wietlisbach, 76; passenger Lillian Rogers, 79

• Driving from Cincinnati to Sarasota, Fla.

• Traveling in HOV lane, veered into HOV exit lane as she fell asleep. Rolled past stop sign at top of ramp, crashed into south overpass wall.

• Wietlisbach suffered minor injuries; Rogers was killed.

• Jan. 15, 2003

• Driver, Warren Morgan, 76; one 76-year-old passenger

• Morgan told police he got confused after being forced into HOV exit lane and didn't realize there was a stop sign at end of exit. He struck another car going south on Northside Drive.

• Morgan and passenger had to be freed from car and were taken to Grady Memorial Hospital.