Fort Wayne, Ind., company buys Executive Coach

OTTAWA — A Fort Wayne, Ind., company has purchased the bus company connected to the crash that killed five members of the Bluffton University baseball team.Excursions Trailways, a charter bus company based in Fort Wayne, Ind., purchased Ottawa’s Executive Coach in October. The now has 10 buses and close to 60 employees between the two locations, said President Tom Bazow.Bazow said the two companies have worked together for about seven years. Executive Coach owner Rick Stechschulte put the business on the market and it seemed like a good fit.“The company is very similar to what we are. They have tremendous employees, good equipment and great customer service, and that’s what we base our business on,” Bazow said.Stechschulte was unavailable for comment.Executive Coach owned the bus that crashed March 2 in Atlanta, killing five players as well as the bus driver and his wife. The company was part of a lawsuit filed Oct. 31 in U.S. District Court in Toledo on behalf of players and coaches killed or injured in the crash. The action seeks to find out whether the bus driver, Jerry Niemeyer, and Executive Coach were covered by insurance. It said the victims were entitled to coverage for their injuries. The company was also included in a suit filed in September by Geneva Ann Williams, the mother of Tyler Williams, a player killed in the crash. That lawsuit also includes Bluffton University, the company that made the bus, and the city of Atlanta. The lawsuit was filed in Fulton County Superior Court in Atlanta and seeks unspecified damages.Bazow said his company is not involved in any of the lawsuits.“We only acquired the equipment. We’re not connected at all to that,” Bazow said.Excursions Trailways opened in Fort Wayne, Ind., in 2000. Owners Bazow and Patrick O’Brian have since expanded the business from one bus to 10 luxury Prevorst motor coaches.