Corpse Falls Out of Coroner's Van and Onto Pa. Roadway

A dead body that was being transported by a county coroner’s van fell out of the vehicle and onto a busy Bucks County roadway during the middle of the day.

A door that malfunctioned caused the corpse, which was on a gurney wrapped in a white sheet, to slip out of the rear door and into traffic on Street Road in Feasterville, the Bucks County Coroner’s Office said in a statement following the incident Friday. 

A bystander came to the aid of the deputy coroner and helped retrieve the body, a female who had died from a drug overdose, the Bucks County Courier Times reported.

Jerry Bradley, the driver who stopped and helped to retrieve the body, snapped a picture of the incident. "Just when I thought I've seen everything. That's a dead body on a stretcher that launched out of the back of a coroner's vehicle in Feasterville," Bradley wrote on Facebook along with the picture.

Bradley's photo of the corpse in the roadway has been shared more than 2,420 times as of Monday morning.

In a statement the Bucks County Coroner said a rear door mechanical malfunction caused the body to slip free from the vehicle.

“The Bucks County Coroner’s office realized that a rear door mechanical malfunction had taken place during the transport of a deceased individual," Bucks County Coroner Dr. Joseph P. Campbell said in a statement. "The driver immediately knew that this malfunction occurred."

“Care was taken to respect the deceased individual in this instance,” the statement continued. “The Bucks County Coroner’s Office deeply regrets this incident and will take steps to ensure that it is not repeated in the future.”