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corpse flung out

AFTERMATH: Emergency workers inspect the scene of the accident after a coffin was flung open on the N2 in Durban. Pic. Mhlaba Memela. 28/01/08. © Sowetan.
AFTERMATH: Emergency workers inspect the scene of the accident after a coffin was flung open on the N2 in Durban. Pic. Mhlaba Memela. 28/01/08. © Sowetan.

Mhlaba Memela

Mhlaba Memela

A family transporting a corpse of a relative narrowly escaped death when a bakkie they were travelling in overturned tossing the body out of the coffin.

The accident happened when the back left tyre burst on the N2 south in Durban on Friday.

Three family members were travelling in a Toyota bakkie transporting their dead relative and a trailer full of groceries.

The family was en route to Port St Johns in the Eastern Cape for the burial.

A man who had been sitting at the back of the vehicle with the coffin suffered a broken arm and other minor injuries.

He was rushed to the nearest hospital. The body was tossed out of the coffin and landed on the road a few metres.

The driver Sipho Mkhize said he was transporting his sister-in- law from New German mortuary near Pinetown to Port St Johns for the burial.

"I was in the middle lane when the tyre bust and lost control. We left home with the hope to get to Port St John early," he said.

Mkhize shed tears as he narrated how the coffin was flung out as the vehicle overturned.

Mkhize and his wife survived with minor injuries while their brother who was sitting at the back was treated on the scene by paramedics before being rushed to hospital.

When Sowetan arrived on the scene, police and paramedics were already helping the traumatised family, while the coffin lay on the road unguarded.

The family picked the corpse and placed it back into the tattered coffin.

The couple, still shaking, said they had spent the last cent they had on the funeral preparations and could not afford to pay for a funeral parlour to transport the body.

He said their family in the Eastern Cape were waiting for them not knowing they were involved in a terrible accident on the way.

"I'm pleased that no one died in this accident but what happened is so painful.

Police confirmed the accident.

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