OLYMPIA, Wash. — Police say a gurney holding a body in Washington state fell from the back of a coroner's van into Olympia traffic.
The Olympian reports the van was heading back to the county coroner's office Monday after responding to a home death.
Olympia Police Department Lt. Paul Lower says two gurneys fell out of the van at the intersection of Martin Way East and Phoenix Street Southeast.
The gurney holding the deceased person was found in the intersection, while the second gurney rolled down the street and was found in a parking lot.
Video shared with the newspaper by a woman named Sydney Fox shows the overturned gurney with the body lying in the intersection of Martin Way East and Phoenix Street Southeast in Olympia. A woman’s incredulous voice can be heard as she sits in a car at a red light.
"Dude, what the hell is happening right now?" she says. "I am at a stoplight, and there is a (expletive) body on a gurney that is just sitting there. There's no ambulance around anywhere. There's nothing. There is just a person. I'm, like, 'What is that? What's happening right now?'"
Lower says officers rerouted traffic while the coroner's office was notified and returned to load the gurneys back into the van.
Thurston County Coroner Gary Warnock says an investigation has started to determine the cause of the incident.
He says there was no trauma to the body and the family was notified.
Associated Press
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