A former school bus driver out of Utah was arrested after being accused of setting two school buses on fire on two separate occasions.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Utah, Michael Austin Ford, 58, of West Valley City, Utah, who used to work for Granite School District, was ordered detained on March 1, 2024. A federal grand jury indicted him on Feb. 21, 2024, for two alleged incidents of arson while driving the bus.
The former bus driver is charged with two counts of arson of a vehicle of an organization receiving federal funds.
Court documents stated that the two incidents occurred in February 2022 and April 2023. The first time, Ford allegedly set a Granite School District school bus ablaze while there were 42 children still inside the bus. After setting the bus on fire, he still drove the bus in traffic. He allegedly used an ignition device to start a fire, and he was seen on video still driving the vehicle, although there was smoke “billowing” toward where the children were seated at the back of the bus.
