A study trip by students from Antioquia ended in tragedy early Sunday morning. The bus in which the group of young people, recent graduates of the Liceo Antioqueño de Bello, were traveling, fell off a cliff in a rural area of Remedios (Antioquia), three hours from Medellín. The number of deaths increased several times throughout this Sunday and now totals 17 people: 16 teenagers and the driver of the vehicle. There are also 20 injured, three of them seriously. The victims were returning to Bello, in the metropolitan area of Medellín, after celebrating their graduation on the Caribbean beaches of Tolú (Sucre).
“Antioqueños, today is a very sad day. We woke up to the news of the accident of a school bus traveling from Tolú towards Medellín. It fell into a sinkhole on the Belén road, El Chispero sector, between Remedios and Zaragoza,” wrote the governor, Andrés Julián Rendón, in X Sunday morning. In the afternoon he confirmed to Noticias Caracol that 17 deaths were recorded and that three of the injured were sent to high complexity hospitals in Medellín, the others remaining in Segovia, Remedios and Yolombó. He commented that a young man, unharmed, was the one who alerted the authorities: “He told us that they hardly noticed him, that they were sleeping.”
The mayor of Bello, Lorena González, stressed in a message on X that the causes why the bus fell into the abyss “are still being studied”. Likewise, he emphasized that “the excursion was organized directly by the travelers and does not correspond to an institutional activity of the Liceo Antioqueño or the Ministry of Education.” Your Administration asked the Bellanitos to light totems in memory of the deceased in the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Church.
The Liceo Antioqueño held a vigil and said it will remember its students with “deep pain, gratitude and respect.” “Flying high, beyond the stars. His time here was brief, but his mark is indelible,” he noted in an Instagram post, accompanied by a mosaic of images in which his 16 students smile. The Precoltur transport company, for its part, deplored the death of its driver, Jonathan Alexander Taborda, and expressed solidarity with the family members. “His commitment and his vocation will always remain in our memory.”
Several political figures also sent their condolences. Former President Iván Duque expressed solidarity with “the families, friends and loved ones of the students who died in this unfortunate incident.” The mayor of Medellín, Federico Gutiérrez, sent words of support to the families of the graduates “in this painful moment” and wished “a speedy recovery” to the injured.
Daniel Quintero, former mayor of Medellín and opponent of the current governor, called for investigations. “(I hope) that the causes and responsibilities will be rigorously clarified, and that this tragedy will force us, without excuses, to strengthen road safety so that no family receives a call like this again,” he commented. “Taking care of yourself on the road is a responsibility shared between all those involved in the road,” he said in a statement.
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