Surge in number of undertakers being injured handling obese bodies revealed

UNDERTAKERS are being hurt as they struggle with increasingly heavy coffins in the obesity epidemic.

They reported broken hands, strained shoulders and back spasms to health bosses.

One broke their foot when they slipped and ended up with one leg in an open grave.

The catalogue of mishaps revealed by the Health and Safety Executive comes as Britain has never been fatter, with the average man weighing 14st by middle age.

It said a team of three were injured carrying a 25st man down stairs in Hampshire.

A funeral director in Newbury, Berks, strained their lower back, and a colleague their shoulder, as they put a heavy body on a stretcher.

They were meant to call a back-up team but tried to move the deceased on their own as the family was so distressed.

Another undertaker had to take time off with severe back spasms after lifting an obese person’s coffin into a private ambulance.

Last year the National Association of Funeral Directors said plans to charge extra to bury the overweight would stigmatise families.

Shutterstock

Undertakers are being hurt as they struggle with increasingly heavy coffins in the obesity epidemic[/caption]