Pastor, driver charged over deadly Colombia bus fire

BOGOTA – A church pastor and a bus driver face up to 60 years in prison after they were charged Friday over an inferno on an overcrowded bus that killed 33 children in Colombia.

The May tragedy in northern Colombia deeply shocked the country and prompted a crackdown on rules governing the road-worthiness of vehicles.

Jaime Gutierrez, the driver of the bus – who lost two of his own children in the tragedy – and the pastor of the church who hired him, Manuel Ibarra, have been accused of numerous offenses including “manslaughter in the form of possible fraud,” said prosecution sources.

The children burned to death when Gutierrez refueled the bus with a jerrycan and it burst into flames.

He fled the scene, pursued by a mob that stoned his house, before giving himself up to police.

The children, aged between three and 12 years old, were returning from evangelical church services in the small northern town of Fundacion.