Workman crushed to death by pop-up urinal
Emergency teams spend two-and-a-half hours freeing the man but he succumbed to his injuries
A worker was crushed to death by a hydraulic urinal in the West End yesterday afternoon. The man was working on the underground pop-up lavatory, just yards away from the Palace Theatre, in London, when the accident happened at about 1pm. Rescue teams deployed 25 firefighters, four fire engines, an air ambulance and a crane in the hope they could lift the device out of the ground. After two and a half hours, they freed the man but he was pronounced dead at the scene.
A WORKER was crushed to death by a hydraulic urinal in the heart of London’s West End yesterday afternoon.
The man was working on the underground pop-up toilet yards from the Palace Theatre at Cambridge Circus when the accident happened at around 1pm.
Rescue teams deployed 25 firefighters, four fire engines, an air ambulance and a crane to lift the device off the man and finally freed him by using a winch, after nearly two-and-a-half hours. He was pronounced dead at the scene.
The Metropolitan police have not identified the dead man, who ws believed to have been servicing the Urilift, but have informed his family.
Telescopic urinals were rolled out in central London more than two decades ago to deter late night revellers from urinating in public and are designed to drop down into the ground and resemble manhole covers during the day. At night, as pubs and theatres empty, they rise up to provide valuable additional facilities.
Westminster Council confirmed it has are temporarily closed its other Urilift in Villiers Street as a “precautionary measure”.
A spokesman for the authority said: “Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the friends and family of the worker who tragically died earlier today at this site in the West End.
“We have been on site supporting our contractor and the emergency services and will assist all investigations in any way we can.”
The Palace Theatre, which has been staging JK Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Cursed Child for the past six years, confirmed that last night’s performance went ahead as planned.
Around 4.40pm, Scotland Yard said: “We’re sorry to have to update that, despite the efforts of emergency services, the man who was critically injured in Cambridge Circus was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed.”
The scale of the attempted rescue led one passer-by to suggest that the emergency crews were responding to a terrorist attack.
The London Fire Brigade confirmed that the man had been “trapped below street level underneath a hydraulic urinal”.
A London Ambulance Service spokesman said: “We were called today at 1.05pm to reports of an incident on Shaftesbury Avenue, Charing Cross.
“We sent a number of resources to the scene, including an ambulance crew, members of our hazardous area response team, members of our tactical response unit and a medic in a fast response car.
“We also dispatched London’s Air Ambulance.
“Sadly, despite the best efforts of our crews, a man was pronounced dead at the scene.”
The first Urilift in London was installed by Islington Council near Fabric, a nightclub, in response to years of complaints from residents about drinkers urinating in the streets.
They can also be found in Guildford, Watford and other cities and towns in Britain, although no similar incidents been reported. There are around 125 of the urinals, which cost more than £25,000 each, in 70 countries, including Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland.
In 2014 an Amsterdam resident was was taken to hospital with an injured abdomen after a Urilift urinal suddenly popped out of the ground in the city’s centre, throwing into the air a moped that landed on top of him.
The Pop-up Toilet Company, which is based in East London, developed the Urilift in 1999, according to its website. It has been approached for comment.