11-Year-Old Boy Saves Students Trapped in Runaway Bus

Cleveland, OH–“Rolling downhill in a bus with his screaming classmates and no driver, a fast-acting 11-year-old jumped behind the wheel Monday and steered the bus into a pillar, stopping it from careening out of control…. “Fifteen children suffered minor injuries and were treated at hospitals and released. The boy who stopped the bus likely saved the children from worse injuries, authorities said.“‘This kid did some quick thinking,’ said Larry Gray, a fire department spokesman…”Conner Strickland…heard screams and watched in horror as some children leapt from the bus. “‘My heart dropped,’ Strickland said. ‘I’m surprised none of them got hit.
There was a lot of traffic.’“The boy who stopped the bus told police he first tried to pull the emergency brake. When that didn’t work, he grabbed the wheel. “Barreling down a side street that swoops through an industrial area, the bus rolled about 300 feet, hopped over a curb and onto a sidewalk before it struck the pillar of a bridge that carries Interstate 90 into downtown. “If it had kept going, the bus would have picked up speed and could have flipped where the street makes a sharp turn, said police Lt. Thomas Stacho.” The Associated Press story is 11-year-old boy stops runaway school bus in Ohio (4/7/08). Thanks to Scott, a reader, for sending it.