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Kids Crash Double-Decker Disney Bus At Volo Auto Museum

July 18, 2018 | In the Press

From Crystal Lake Patch (https://patch.com/illinois/crystallake/kids-crash-double-decker-disney-bus-volo-auto-museum)

Two grade-school-aged children took a rare double-decker Disney bus for a joy ride this past Monday morning – bypassing signs asking visitors not to touch the bus, which was parked in an employees-only area at the Volo Auto Museum, according to media reports. They ended up driving the bus – one of only six ever built by Disney Company – down an 80-foot hill and crashing it into a tree.

The children were not hurt but the bus, which Volo Auto Museum bought in 2014 for $250,000 and spent between $100,000 to $150,000 to restore, has a bent frame, cracked radiator and dents to the decorative brass shell that wraps around the radiator, according to the Daily Herald. 

The bus is usually kept inside a building at the museum but was outside Monday to receive a tune-up. The Volo Auto Museum is planning an event for Aug. 11 that will allow visitors to ride the Double Decker Omni- Bus, which debuted at Disneyland in August 1956.

Grams told the Lake County News-Sun the keys were not in the vehicle when the children got on board. But the children were able to get the vehicle out of park without keys.

Brian Grams, the museum's director, told the Daily Herald the show will go on in August and the museum still plans to host the event. He said a Band-Aid will be put on the bus.

Costumed Disney characters will also be on the bus to add to the experience, according to a Volo Auto Museum Facebook post.

The bus was taken out off the streets of Disneyland at some point in the 2000s because it "became difficult and dangerous to maneuver through the crowds." Prior to that, it was used as the "Characters on Holiday" bus and was used in parades and to transport the characters throughout the park to the character stop. In the 1980s, it served as a "people mover in the World Showcase" at Epcot. 

In 2014, Volo Auto Museum officials found the dilapidated bus in Florida for sale.

"Despite its rundown appearance, we purchased it for its role in Disney History and had it restored to its former glory," museum officials wrote on the museum's website.

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