A corpse fell out of the back of a moving mortuary vehicle on a busy Pinetown road at the weekend.
The vehicle was travelling on Josiah Gumede (Old Main) Road in Durban on Saturday morning when local car dealer, Mike Mears, said he heard a clattering sound.
He was standing on the roadside chatting to a friend at the time.
“The noise caught my attention and when I looked back I saw a steel tray lying on the road. In a split second, a body came hurtling out from the back of the van on a stretcher. We realised it was a mortuary van when it reversed to fetch the corpse,” Mears said.
“There was blood splattered on the floor from the tray. It looked like a body was wrapped in a body bag and tied to the stretcher.”
The driver stopped after motorists started hooting to get his attention.
Mears said two occupants of the van got out and hastily picked up the body and fallen items.
Another bystander, Ian Neil, who stared in disbelief as the incident unfolded, said it appeared that the mortuary van’s back door was broken.
There was no lock, bolt or any other way to secure the door, he said.
“The van pulled off fast enough for the entire back to swing open and out came the body, including the drip tray,” he said.
Neil was unable to confirm if the body was that of an adult or child.
But the drip tray made it gruesome, he said.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health said it was investigating the incident and would respond later.
Source: Daily News