Funeral home apologizes after corpse falls out of hearse into traffic

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A funeral home in Poland issued an unusual apology on Saturday after a corpse that it was transporting fell out of a hearse and into traffic.

Polish media reported that a man was driving down a street Friday in Stalowa Wola, a city in southeastern Poland, when he first 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 corpse lying on a white striped pedestrian crossing where it tumbled out of the hearse.

The company transporting the corpse, Hades Funeral Services, issued a statement 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 apologized to “all those who were disappointed and upset by this event.”