Mark Linder died Sunday in a Greyhound bus crash in Tennessee. SPECIAL

His 11-year-old son, Stephen Parker, said he tried to talk to his father after he was pinned beneath the bus, but got no answer, Mr. Linder's parents said Monday.

Stephen survived the crash with minor injuries and found his father under the bus, according to Mr. Linder's parents, Pearline and John Linder of Augusta.

After the crash, Stephen was taken to a Nashville hospital, where he looked for his father but could not find him. Hospital personnel could not immediately identify Mr. Linder because his identification was in a backpack on the bus, Mrs. Linder said.

When Stephen telephoned his grandparents from the Tennessee hospital Sunday to say he had not found his father, the Linders said, they knew their son must be dead.

Stephen told the Linders that he saw his father's legs sticking from under the bus.

''He said he was shaking his leg and talking to him, but he wouldn't answer,'' Mr. Linder said Monday at the couple's home off Windsor Spring Road. ''We knew then he was dead. We had heard that one person was killed, and we knew it was Mark.''

The bus drifted from one lane to another, hit a median and began to slide on wet grass. The driver overcorrected to get back on the road and flipped the bus on its right side, said Tennessee Department of Safety spokeswoman Dana Keeton.

Mr. Linder was thrown from the vehicle and trapped beneath it.

Mr. Linder also leaves a 2-week-old son, Markese.

The baby's mother, Aretha Clark of Augusta, said words cannot describe her feelings over the death.

Mr. Linder had gone to Colorado Springs to get his son because the family decided the child needed a male influence in his life, family members said.

Stephen's mother wanted Mr. Linder to spend some time with him ''because he was getting ... kind of out of hand,'' Mrs. Linder said. ''She said there were gangs and stuff up there, and she wanted him to have a male figure with him all the time, so Mark had decided to take him and bring him down here. He had a two-bedroom apartment off Washington Road. He had it all planned.''

Mr. Linder traveled by bus because he thought it would be safer than flying or driving.

''He didn't want to fly,'' his mother said. ''He thought the bus might be the safest way. And so did me and my husband.''

The Linders were waiting for Stephen and his mother, Stacy Parker, to arrive in Augusta late Monday. They did not know whether Ms. Parker would let the boy stay in Augusta, although they said they hoped she would.

''We'll just have to wait and see,'' Mrs. Linder said.

The Linders have two other sons, Johnny Jr., 29, and Teddy, 19. All were looking forward to Stephen's arrival.

''Yes, it's tragic,'' Mrs. Linder said. ''I just think, of all the people on the bus it had to be my son. He was my oldest son. But I know God knew what he was doing. I have to believe that.''

Mr. Linder graduated from Westside High School in 1986. He worked for First Medical Choice in Augusta, delivering and setting up in-home medical equipment.

Williams Funeral Home in Augusta is handling funeral arrangements. Mr. Linder will be buried in Augusta, his mother said.

The Tennessee Highway Patrol expects the investigation into the wreck to take several days, Ms. Keeton said.

''The investigation is ongoing and will be lengthy and detailed, with computer-aided reconstruction,'' she said. ''It will include physical inspection of the bus and statements from witnesses.''

Ms. Keeton would not say whether charges would be filed against the bus driver, Nathaniel B. Waugh, 52, of St. Louis, who was released after hospital treatment.