A coffin with a dead body fell from the hearse onto the street

Photo: Tiit Reinberg / Järva Teataja

A coffin with a dead person fell from a hearse onto the street in Paide at the intersection of Pärnu and Suur-Aia streets last Saturday.

Järva Teataja received a tip on Saturday evening that a dead body was lying in the middle of the street at the intersection of Pärnu and Suur-Aia streets. The anonymous source explained that he had been driving by when he saw a coffin with a broken lid in the middle of the road, the body halfway out of it and the wreaths scattered all around.

He added that there were no people or cars around the coffin. «It seems that the coffin had fallen out when turning a around corner, and the driver did not even notice it because he drove on.»

Mihkel Raudsepp, a board member of the Hingesaaatjad funeral parlor, admits that the unfortunate incident actually happened but that the tip had been greatly exaggerated. «This indeed happened that the coffin fell out of the car, but that the body was out of the coffin never took place. The coffin was completely intact. Moreover, there were no flowers at this funeral, so the claim that they were all over the street is also not true.»

«The hatch of the car opened at the turn. The reason was the hot weather, with had caused the hatch of the car to expand so that it did not lock properly. Also the driver was driving this particular vehicle for the first time. Several negative factors just coincided,» Raudsepp adds.

«It's definitely an unfortunate incident, but people make mistakes and accidents happen,» he explained.

The funeral home confirms that the driver had been sober at the time of the accident.