OTTAWA, Ohio The Ottawa-based operator whose motorcoach crashed in Atlanta last March, killing seven people, including members of the Bluffton University baseball team, has been sold and is now operating under a new name.

Executive Coach Luxury Travel had been owned and operated by Rick Stechschulte for 10 years but it was unable to maintain its business viability because of problems obtaining insurance.

"Everybody around here knows what happened," Stechschulte told Bus & Motorcoach News. "The insurance knocked us out. It was about six times the price. It was strictly from the accident. We came out clean in all the inspections, and we ran for six months and got the highest inspections we could have got. We were good to go."

Except for the huge nut created by soaring insurance premiums.

"It was astronomical," Stechschulte said. "We just couldn't afford to stay in business. We'd have had to raise our rates so high it just wouldn't have been practical."

Stechschulte declined to give dollar figures other than to say his insurance rate soared six fold over what it had been.

On March 1, one of Stechschultes coaches was traveling through Atlanta on Interstate 75, carrying 34 passengers, most of who were members of the Bluffton University baseball team. The team was on its way to Florida for a series of spring games.

At 5:30 a.m., the coach departed the left lane, which also was an HOV lane, onto an exit ramp. The HOV-lane exit is unusual because it veers left. The coach traveled at highway speed up the ramp, which ended in an elevated "T" intersection with Northside Drive, an overpass road above I-75.

Because of its high rate of speed, the bus failed to negotiate the intersection and collided with the overpass concrete rail, resulting in the ejection of four passengers. The coach them jumped the bridge rail, rotated clockwise, and fell onto the interstate, landing on the driver side and ejecting six more passengers.

Investigators have blamed the crash on the drivers failure to realize the ramp was an exit and not a continuation of the interstate, and on the highway design. The exit was marked, though there has been criticism of the signage, which has since been upgraded.

As a result of the crash, the driver, Jerome Niemeyer, his wife Jean, and five passengers died. Seven others were seriously injured.

Fallout from the tragedy has included introduction of legislation in Congress, the Bluffton University Safety Act of 2007, which calls for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to conduct comprehensive scientific research to determine the direction of future regulatory requirements for motorcoaches and motorcoach travel.

However, the NHTSA has not waited for the legislation to make its way through Congress and has embarked on a test program to examine the crashworthiness and structural integrity of motorcoaches, along with seat restraint systems.

The program also is analyzing motorcoach fire safety.

The first crash test of a full-size motorcoach into a rigid barrier at 30 mph took place in mid-December at the Vehicle Research and Test Center in Ohio.

The crash of a late model coach marked the first time the federal government has ever crash tested a motorcoach.

A number of lawsuits also have been filed against Executive Coach for using a bus without seat belts; the Georgia Department of Transportation "for failing to provide adequate road signs on Interstate 75," Bluffton University for failing to contract a bus without seat belts, Van Hool for manufacturing the bus without seat belts, and the construction company that built the HOV exit.

Stechschulte sold his company to Excursions Trailways of Fort Wayne, Ind., and its principals, partners Tom Bazow and Patrick O'Brian.

Bazow said Executive Coach and his company have had a good working relationship. "Rick approached us about selling," said Bazow. "We'd been in talks before and we worked together for seven years. When we were oversold, we would contract out with Executive Coach. At times we shared drivers. We both have the same standards and we offer the same type of service."

Bazow credited Executive Coach with having run "an excellent operation

with quality equipment, drivers and employees."

Bazow and O'Brian have set up a new company, Excursions Trailways of Ohio, replacing Executive Coach. The combined Excursions' operations have a total of 40 drivers and 10 Prevost motorcoaches in Fort Wayne and Ottawa. Bazow said his company joined Trailways in May 2005.

Meanwhile, Stechschulte continues to own and operate Specialty Builders, a construction company, which shared space with the bus company.