Man dies tragically after the coffin carrying his own mother fell and crushed him to death
An Indonesian man was killed after his mother's coffin fell on him from a funeral tower and ended up hitting him during the funeral service on their home island of Sulawesi. 40-year-old Samen Kondorura tragically died after the pallbearers carrying his mother coffin up the bamboo ladder to the top of the tower at the funeral lost their balance. The incident took place in the Parinding valley in the North Toraja district, The Daily Mail reported.
The heavy casket fell after the group of men were lifting it onto a lakkian, which is an elaborately carved tower where the bodies of the dead are kept before the funeral rites take place.
The Chief Commissioner Siriat of the Tana Toraja Resort police told AFP: "As the mother's coffin was being raised to the lakkian, suddenly the ladder shifted and collapsed, the coffin fell and hit the victim."
The highly graphic video shows the moment when the ladder slipped under the weight of the coffin and all the pallbearers, just as they were about to reach the top of the tower. The men all fall to the ground, which is a few meters below, and this is where Kondorura was crushed by his own mother's coffin.
Shocked bystanders rushed immediately to help get the casket off the man but it was already too late for him. The 40-year-old died later on in the hospital.
According to Chief Commissioner Siriat, the incident occurred because the ladder had not been reinforced properly before the pallbearers took the coffin up. The Kondorura family has decided not to press any charges against the organizers for the double tragedy. The chief said that Kondorura's body has been buried next to his mother, Berta.
Torajans have an extensive funeral ceremony when one of their own dies. This includes plenty of music, dance, and even the sacrificial ceremony involving a water buffalo. The ceremony has been known to last for days.
In another tragic incident that was reported by Meaww, a couple from Tennessee, USA, was killed in a car crash shortly after they left the funeral of their cousin on June 9. 38-year-old Cameo Sanders-Jenkins and her husband, 49-year-old Troy Jenkins died when their classic 1968 Chevrolet Camaro accelerated all of a sudden and smashed into a stone wall on Cato Road in Pegram, a town that has only 2,000 residents.
A 27-year-old relative of the deceased couple, Amber Phillips, told the Tennessean: "They were amazing people. I just can’t name one person they did not help in some way."
Phillips told the publication that she had become very attached to the couple over the past two years after Greg Sanders, Cameo's nephew and the father of Phillips' youngest child, was killed in a homicide. After he was killed, Cameo took it upon herself to help out Phillips and her young child.
Phillips said: "She was there for us, physically and emotionally. She was a mentor, a friend, and she was even my realtor – she helped me buy my home." Troy worked as a maintenance worker for a property management company in the town.
Cameo worked as a broker for Jeanette Realtors. She started working in the real estate industry about six years before she passed away. Her colleagues at the company said that she was a kind but passionate employee.
One of the other brokers at the firm, Daniel Miller, said: "She had a spark to her, and nobody pushed her around and nobody ran over her. But she would also help anybody – her family, her friends – she was there for everyone."
Initially, the police had said that the relative who had passed away was the couple's son but they changed the information shortly after.
The couple had been inside their 1968 Chevrolet Camaro and were heading down Cato Road when the incident occurred. It has been reported that the car suddenly gained speed and crashed into a wall on the side of the road. The authorities found evidence of braking that took place shortly after the car started accelerating but it did not seem to have slowed the car down enough.
The car was very old and because of this age, it did not have any seat belt and only had lap belts on the inside. The couple is said to have been wearing the lap belts at the time of the crash but the car had another problem; there were no airbags. Troy and Cameo were immediately rushed to the Vanderbilt University Medical Center after they were found in the car. Unfortunately, it wasn't soon enough and they were pronounced dead the moment they were taken in.