File art of a Long Beach Transit bus.
File art of a Long Beach Transit bus.

Prosecutors filed 16 misdemeanor counts last week against a city bus driver accused of driving drunk and sideswiping more than a dozen cars near Downtown Long Beach earlier this month.

John Moreno, 48, faces 14 counts of hit-and-run along with one count each of driving under the influence of alcohol and driving with a blood-alcohol content over .08%.

A police source previously told the Post that Moreno’s blood-alcohol level was tested at .3%, more than three-times the legal limit.

Police arrested Moreno in the early morning hours of April 1. He was finishing up his route for Long Beach Transit when he hit 14 parked cars near near Pacific Avenue and Anaheim Street, authorities allege. Nobody else was aboard the bus, police said.

Moreno kept driving until one of the hit-and-run victims flagged him down, according to the Long Beach City Prosecutor’s office, which handles misdemeanors.

Moreno, a Corona resident, previously did not return messages from the Post.

He’s expected in court to answer the charges May 29.

Moreno is no longer employed by Long Beach Transit, according to spokesman Michael Gold.

Editor’s note: This story was updated Thursday evening with more info from Long Beach Transit.

Jeremiah Dobruck is executive editor of the Long Beach Post where he oversees all day-to-day newsroom operations. In his time working as a journalist in Long Beach, he’s won numerous awards for his investigative reporting and editing. Before coming to the Post in 2018, he wrote for publications including the Press-Telegram, Orange County Register and Los Angeles Times. Reach him at [email protected] or @jeremiahdobruck on Twitter.