A 40-year-old Indonesian man was killed at his mother’s funeral – after suffering a serious head injury while trying to lift her coffin up to a resting spot at her funeral last Friday.
Samen Kondorura, from central Sulawesi, was carrying his mother’s coffin, together with a dozen other pallbearers, while going up a bamboo ladder to the lakkian – a traditional wood stilt where bodies are stored at a funeral, in the Parinding valley in North Toraja district on June 15.
Kondorura was struck on his head by the coffin when the bamboo ladder suddenly collapsed, which caused many pallbearers to fall to the ground.
The man died of a severe head injury on his way to hospital, AFP reported, citing Julianto Sirait, the chief commissioner of the Tana Toraja resort police.
A video clip taken by a funeral participant shows that the bamboo ladder had slipped before the accident. Police found that the ladder was not properly designed by the government.
However, Kondorura’s family has declined to press charges.
His body was later laid to rest alongside his mother named Berta, Standard Media reported.
