'Play like there's no tomorrow' | The Bluffton University bus crash, 15 years later
WTOL 11 anchor Melissa Andrews checked in with some of the survivors and the father of one of the victims to see where they are now.
Wednesday, March 2, 2022, marks 15 years since one of the country's most horrific crashes. It had a large impact on northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan communities.
The bus was carrying Bluffton University baseball players; young men who grew up in areas like Maumee, Ida and Bryan.
They were just beginning their lives and making plans for the future when everything went dark.
The chartered bus was carrying the 2007 baseball team of 28 players and 5 coaches on their way to Florida for spring training.
Nine hours into the trip, near Atlanta, the driver mistakenly traveled up an HOV exit ramp at 70 mph, then went over a safety barrier. The bus toppled over the wall and spun 180-degrees in mid-air, landing in the middle of I-75.
The surviving players are in their mid-30s now.
Many still struggle to make sense of why they lived, but their teammates - Cody Holp, Tyler Williams, Scott Harmon, Zach Arend and David Betts - had to die.
Greg Sigg "It's surreal to think about how much life has changed in 15 years."
"It's surreal to think about how much life has changed in 15 years," Greg Sigg, a player who survived the crash, said.
"I think about them often," Sigg said. "It's hard not to look at yourself and feel guilty because you know the quality of people that we lost and some of the outstanding individuals."
Sigg was 21 at the time of the crash.
He's now 36. He's a husband, father and assistant principal at Clay High School. Sometimes he feels guilty about surviving.
"They were thoughtful caring people and it makes me stop about, 'Am I being the best person I can be?'" he said.
"It's been over the last 15 years something I've tried to become is living up to the best person I can be for myself, my family and the students at this high school," Sigg said. "I've always felt that God has a plan for me, and I hope that I'm doing my best to fulfill it."
David Betts "Play like there's no tomorrow."
John Betts' son David was killed in the crash, but he hopes the survivors can move on from feeling that guilt.
"You need to go forward with your life, continuing to do good," Betts said. "Why somebody next to you died, and why somebody - you - lived is a question that you don't need to answer other than live your life well."
David Betts was just 20 years old when he was killed. His favorite saying was, "play like there's no tomorrow."
RELATED: Saying Goodbye to David Betts
Betts' seat and many others were fully intact on the bus. His family, citing investigators, believes if seatbelts had been on the bus, everyone could have survived.
"The most difficult part is wondering what he would be doing and who he would have married, how many kids," John Betts said. "I try not to dwell on what he would be doing because that becomes very sad."
The family worked with other families and legislators to pass the Motorcoach Safety Bill, requiring seatbelts and other safety features on new buses.
They also built the David Betts Double Play Diamond in Bryan.
Now 600 kids have the chance to "play like there's no tomorrow," just like David.
Tim Berta "I was 22 years old, eight weeks away from graduating with a biology degree."
Student coach Tim Berta miraculously survived a traumatic brain injury, spending months learning to talk and walk again.
"I was 22 years old, eight weeks away from graduating with a biology degree. Eight weeks. It's also not fair that people had to die and I didn't," Berta said.
"That's tough on me. That's probably the toughest thing about it is you just ask yourself, 'Why?' I'll never know why. The Lord knows, but I'll never know. I deal with that because I'm a human being, when science says I should have been killed," he said.
"More than one doctor has said, 'You shouldn't be here.' One of them said, 'There's no medical evidence telling me why you're where you are or why you should be doing what you're doing.'"
Now 37, Berta continues to beat the odds, driving a car and living on his own, with hopes of a family someday. He is a coach and motivational speaker, visiting traumatic brain injury survivors in hospitals to offer hope and inspiration.
RELATED: Tim Berta: More than a survivor
"Getting everything just the way you want it and then all of the sudden, through no fault of your own, it's wiped away. The worst part about it was that only I could fix it. I mean, yeah, people could pray for me, they could help me. I was the one who had to put in the physical effort and sweat to regain what I lost. How unfair is that? And I had nothing to do with it, but I had to do it. Only I could do it," Berta said.
"I pretty much broke every bone in my face, in my jaw, and then had a traumatic brain injury as well."
James Grandey "In the moment, I was the one who was responsible. I was the leader of the trip."
James Grandey still coaches the Bluffton baseball team all these years later. He was just 29 at the time of the crash, not much older than the players he coached.
"It's still really hard," Grandey said. "You don't know if you're doing enough or if you've done enough or if they know that you still care. All of those things are still challenging and obviously, in the moment, I was the one who was responsible. I was the leader of the trip."
He visits the university's memorial almost every day and makes sure every recruit knows about the men who played on the Bluffton baseball diamond.
Their spirit is kept alive in how the game is played today.
"We talk about how baseball is a really important thing in all of our lives, but it's not the most important thing in all of our lives," Grandey said. "When you get the chance to go play, whether it's practice or play a game or just do some extra work with a teammate, how valuable that time is."
Time is going on.
Perhaps one thing we can all take from this all these years later is the very thing David Betts practiced most:
"Play like there's no tomorrow."
