The Taney County Commission voted 2-0 to approve the purchase of a new truck that will change the way the Taney County Coroner’s office handles transport of bodies from some death scenes.
The story by Jason Wert of the Branson Tri-Lakes News:
The coroner’s office will be purchasing a 2022 GMC Sierra from Pinegar Chevrolet Buick GMC of Branson. The new truck will be fitted on the truck bed with a system that will allow the coroner’s office to transport bodies from a death scene to a morgue without requiring third-party intervention.
“We’ll have a self-loading system,” Taney County Coroner Tony Mullen told Branson Tri-Lakes news. “We’ll also have a UV light system that will help us with COVID-19 patients. That’s a large reason we went the direction we did. The truck will keep the driver separate from the body we will transport instead of them being in the same airspace like they would be if we had a van.”
The coroner’s office has depended on local funeral homes to transport bodies for them which adds another party into investigations into questionable deaths or deaths from some kind of criminal activity.
“It helps keep the chain of custody intact,” Mullen said.
The truck will be delivered to the coroner’s office before the end of the year.
Eastern Taney County Commissioner Sheila Wyatt was not in attendance at the meeting to vote on the measure.
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