After a car accident last week, a church minister was left wondering how safe funeral processions really are.

A lay minister was T-boned in Winnipeg during a funeral procession, totalling his vehicle. He was the fourth vehicle in a 10-car procession.

One of the concerns is that people may not be aware of the rules during a funeral procession. To add to the confusion, it appears Under the Highway Traffic Act each municipality can pass by-laws related to funeral processions, giving the drivers special privileges.

In Winkler, Police Chief Ryan Hunt stated funeral processions must obey all traffic laws as normal.

Jake Giesbrecht with Wiebe Funeral Homes said this rule has been working out well for them.

"They go well actually," said Giesbrecht. "In other places a funeral procession has the right of way."

Although traffic can proceed as normal, Giesbrecht said one of the upsides of living in a smaller city is that people are very polite.

"We're lucky to live in a community like we do, where most people, when they realize there's a funeral procession coming, they still do yield the right of way and allow us to process past them."

"In conversation with grieving families, it's such a small thing, but it's so meaningful to them to see people stop and take a couple of minutes out of their day to allow a funeral procession to go by," he added.

Giesbrecht noted there was an accident in Winkler about three years ago during a funeral procession. He said cars within the procession were following too close, and someone didn't stop in time and rear-ended another vehicle in the procession.

However, he said there hasn't been an accident since then, and he'd like to see the practice continued.

"I'd be sad to see funeral processions shut down. It's such a part of the funeral and the whole process and I think it's a meaningful thing ... I would personally not be in favour of stopping funeral processions completely," he said.

The lack of understanding around traffic etiquette during a funeral procession may be due to an increase in cremations, and less processions taking place.