Funeral home in Poland apologises after body falls from hearse into traffic

A funeral home in Poland has apologised after a body that it was transporting fell out of a hearse and into traffic.

Polish media reported that a man was driving down a street on Friday in Stalowa Wola, a city in south-eastern Poland, when he saw a sheet on his car window. When the sheet slid down, he saw a body lying on the road. For a moment the driver feared that he had hit the person.

Local media published an image of the body lying on a white-striped pedestrian crossing, where it had tumbled out of the hearse.

The company transporting the body, Hades funeral services, issued a statement on Saturday taking responsibility for the incident and blaming a technical failure of the hearse.

“It is with deep regret that we inform you that as a result of an unexpected technical failure of the electric tailgate lock in the hearse during the transport of the body of the deceased, an unfortunate event occurred which does not reflect the high standards of our company, our deep empathy towards the families of the deceased, and the respect we always show to the deceased,” the company wrote in a statement posted on its website.

It apologised to “all those who were disappointed and upset by this event”.