Driving to work on I-75 Friday morning, I thought my first task as an AJC reporter would be to report online about a fatal wrong-way wreck that happened a few hours earlier on the Downtown Connector near Turner Field.

Little did I know that I would, moments later, be in the middle of an unfortunately much bigger story.

AJC reporter Mike Morris.

[an error occurred while processing this directive] RELATED: • See the coverage from Bluffton, Ohio

As I approached the Howell Mill Road overpass, I could see brake lights as cars ahead of me came to a sudden stop.

In the predawn darkness, I thought I could see an overturned tractor-trailer, blocking all southbound lanes. I picked up my cellphone and called 911 to report the crash. The operator asked if there were any injuries, so I got out of my car to walk the short distance to the overturned vehicle.

That's when I saw the emergency hatch on the roof of the bus and realized it wasn't a wrecked truck at all.

A cold chill ran down my spine.

In my off time, I volunteer with a youth musical group that travels 10,000 miles every summer on charter buses. My stepson also is a member of the group, so it hits very close to home every time I hear of a bad bus wreck.

As I ran up to the bus, young men, who appeared to be in their late teens or early 20s, began to climb out of the rooftop hatch, which was only a couple of feet from the pavement since the bus had landed on its side.

Myself and several other motorists who had gotten out to help began trying to get the injured to the side of the road, where they could sit on a short concrete wall.

Some of the injured collapsed in the roadway, while others were able to walk to the wall. Almost all were covered with blood.

'I'm freezing. Can you find me a blanket?'

I asked one young man where they were from, and he said they were a baseball team from Ohio, heading to Florida. Then, he said, "I'm freezing. Can you find me a blanket?"

I went in search of a blanket, and a flashlight, because it was totally dark inside the bus.

About that time, the first wave of what would be dozens of police, firefighters and EMTs began arriving. They asked for all civilians to go back to our cars.

By that time, there were several dozen cars stuck in the backup between the Northside Drive overpass and the last exit ramp, to Howell Mill Road.

Police began directing us to turn our vehicles around, and head northbound in the southbound lanes for about a half-mile to the Howell Mill exit.

Once off the interstate, I worked my way on side streets to Northside Drive, to continue reporting on the tragedy, hoping that there would not be any fatalities, but realizing that there likely would be.