Celebrations take a turn for worse

It was a birthday bash gone wrong.
A busload of Lifestyle Warragul residents got a fright last Friday, when the Renault Master they were travelling in to the Club Hotel took out a traffic light at the Napier St intersection in Warragul.
The group of eight, plus a driver, were all unharmed with only one passenger transported to hospital for observation.
Speaking with the Gazette, one passenger said, "the guy driving, it's his birthday and we're all going to the Club Hotel."
He said the driver, aged 83, attempted a U-turn from the Centrelink side of Queen St, "trying to get the bus around to park close and let everybody out (close to the venue). There's a few elderly people (on board)."
"Somehow he missed when turning - the bus is quite big. So he overstated, mounting the footpath, hit the pole where the light is, absolutely floored it and then that stopped him."
Police arrived at the scene at 12:36pm, and confirmed the driver had mistaken the accelerator pedal for the brake.
Emergency services responding to the incident included two fire trucks, one ambulance, police and one SES unit. Officers then worked to direct traffic, while the flattened traffic pole retained power, continuing to light up from under the vehicle.
Two staffers from the Lifestyle Village attended shortly before the CFA arrived to push the vehicle out from the power pole, into which the bonnet had become significantly wedged.
The van was removed from the scene by tow truck shortly before 2pm.