PHOTO: The body, which was strapped to a gurney and covered in a sheet, was spotted lying in the middle of a road at Papatoetoe in Auckland on Tuesday as the driver and Manasa Fakapulia tried to lift it back in
A Tongan family in Auckland have been left shaken after helping to load a corpse back into a hearse after it slid out onto a busy South Auckland intersection, New Zealand Herald reports.
Manase Fakapulia with his wife Alisi and their 14-year-old daughter, Lineti were travelling back from a shopping trip at Otahuhu when the incident happened.
They were waiting at a traffic light at the Puhinui-Great South Rd intersection at about 1pm Monday when the corpse, strapped to a gurney and covered with a sheet, fell out the back.
Fakapulia got out of his car and helped the driver lifting the body.
“It was scary [but] someone had to go out and help because it was blocking the traffic,” Mrs Fakapulia told The New Zealand Herald.
“No one wanted to get out, I could tell. I said ‘Babe, babe do you see what I see?’ and he just jumped out and helped lift it,” she said.
When the men were not able to keep the door of the boot open, Lineti joined in to hold it open while the body was maneuvered back in.
The incident has left Mr Fakapulia shaken and unable to sleep.
“He’s been up all night the last two nights thinking about it, he said he can’t sleep thinking about what happened,”his wife said.
The cadaver was being transported by Pacific Memorials, and co-owner Carina Zhang said it appeared a faulty latch on the back door of the hearse was to blame for the incident.
