Tim Berta does not remember climbing aboard the bus that would change his life forever. The big motor coach navigated early morning Atlanta traffic along I-75. Berta and members of the Bluffton University baseball team left Ohio headed to Florida in 2007.
The driver mistakenly drove off I-75 and up an HOV lane crashing from an overpass onto the interstate below. Seven people were killed. Tim almost made it eight.
He barely survived broken bones, head and internal injuries and was left in a coma. A neurosurgeon said he would never walk, drive or speak again. He was determined to prove the doctor wrong. “It was a slow, tedious process coming from a guy who played wide receiver in football and three sports in high school and played baseball.” The accident left five team members, the bus driver and his wife dead.
Tim now addresses groups as a motivational speaker. “I have had quite a few nurses tell me that I have made them a better nurse. I have let them relate closely and better with their patients that they are taking care of. They might understand more of what they could be dealing with or thinking about in their patient’s position.”
He authored a book describing his experiences and graduated from Bluffton two years after the crash. He later earned a master’s degree from Lourdes University in leadership. He says he made it through the ordeal by leaning on family and faith. “I would be angry and miserable. I would be saying how could you do this to me? How could you let this happen to me? It was an emotional roller coaster. But the more I learned about the accident, the more it became glaringly obvious to me I’m supposed to be here. I’m supposed to be in this position because science says that I should have been killed.”
Tim says he thinks about the accident almost every day and expects there will be a ceremony next March on the 20th anniversary of the accident. He continues to deliver hopeful, inspirational messages. “Enjoy being able to take a simple drink of water because I went over a year and couldn’t even drink water. I couldn’t eat solid food. Enjoy that. If something does happen, lean on the Lord. You’re going to get through it.”
For more information about Tim Berta, go to myboyberta.com.
