Cleveland ? 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.

Some children jumped out the side door and rolled into the street. The driver, Michael Weir, had stopped for fuel and was in the station’s restroom when the bus started to roll with 27 children aboard.

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.

State law prohibits bus drivers from leaving their vehicles at any time when students are on board and drivers are not allowed to stop for gas during their route, said Scott Blake, spokesman for the Ohio Department of Education.

Authorities were trying to find out more about why Weir left the bus, which was carrying students to Arts Academy Community School West, a charter school that opened this year.