4 Counts Filed on Bus Driver in Blowout That Killed Boy : Courts: His driver’s license was suspended and he had no liability insurance or operating permit, charges say.

Four misdemeanor charges have been filed against a 22-year-old bus driver in connection with a tire blowout that caused the freak death of a 3-year-old passenger.

Ruben Cisneros is accused of driving with a suspended license, failing to get a proper operating permit and failing to buy liability insurance for the 25-passenger bus he owned and operated.

Cisneros, of South Gate in Los Angeles County, was also charged Tuesday with doctoring his driving logs in an apparent effort to avoid state permit requirements, Deputy Dist. Atty. Kelly Rand said.

“The whole thing was a bit shady,” she said. “How safe would you feel being on a bus where the driver doesn’t have an operating license, he himself is not licensed and he doesn’t have any insurance?”

Cisneros, who faces a year in jail on each charge, is scheduled to be arraigned on the misdemeanor charges Sept. 22 in Vista Municipal Court.

California Highway Patrol reports say Cisneros was driving a 1984 Ford van north on Interstate 5 on May 9 when the right rear tire blew out and steel-belted tread sliced through floorboards and a passenger seat.

The strands of tread wrapped around Ramon Prado Galvan of Santa Ana, dragging the sleeping boy from his mother’s arms and through the hole in the floor. The boy was run over by the bus and several other vehicles and died instantly.

CHP investigators found that the tire had been weakened when it struck an unknown object but otherwise was in good condition. It could not be determined whether the impact occurred seconds or even days before the blowout.

The CHP investigation also revealed that the floor of Cisneros’ van was made of wafer-board and plastic foam, said Rand, who didn’t know if the vehicle had been modified.

The driver cannot be criminally faulted for the accident because the van’s actual condition was not readily apparent from a cursory inspection, Rand said.

Cisneros was taking passengers from San Ysidro on the north side of the U.S.-Mexico border to Los Angeles and Orange counties when the accident occurred near Oceanside, the prosecutor said.

He altered his logs, however, to indicate he picked up his passengers in Tijuana, in an apparent effort to avoid California’s tougher permit regulations, Rand said.

Vehicles used for commercial transportation only within California must have a permit from the state Public Utilities Commission and are subject to annual CHP inspections. If defects are found, the PUC suspends the operating license for that bus until it’s repaired.

However, similar vehicles that cross international or state lines fall under federal guidelines that don’t require them to be inspected, according to officials with the PUC, which also investigated the accident.

Cisneros, who has been convicted twice before of driving with a suspended license, was required by law to have at least $5 million in liability insurance, Rand said.

His lack of insurance could be a problem for the child’s parents, who have consulted an attorney about a possible civil lawsuit against Cisneros, the prosecutor said.