WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal investigators say a confused bus driver thought he was entering an HOV lane when he drove instead up an elevated exit ramp, through a stop sign and off an overpass last year in Atlanta.

The driver, his wife, and 5 members of an Ohio college baseball team were killed in the crash.

National Transportation Safety Board investigators say confusing signs along the Atlanta freeway contributed to the accident -- along with driver error. And they say a lack of passenger safety features on the bus added to the fatalities.

NTSB chairman Mark Rosenker says the crash was "an accident that didn't have to happen."

Parents of several of the crash victims appeared at the meeting in Washington to demand stronger bus safety regulations, including stronger roofs, window glazing and mandatory seat belts.

One father notes that the NTSB made a similar set of recommendations in 1968 but they never made it into law. John Betts says "our sons would be alive today" had the proposals had been adopted 40 years ago.



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