Awful News

[fruitsalad]

R.I.P to the poor man crushed by the 'telescopic' urinal, I had never heard of these things until today, how do the actually work and where are they?

[piggynose]

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-london-64430454
And there was thinking me you were taking the ***

[Buenchico]

Video here:
https://www.facebook.com/interestingengineering/videos/retractable-urinal/350014398936862/

Evening Standard news item from 11 years ago:
https://www.standard.co.uk/hp/front/the-loo-that-rises-out-of-the-ground-6318964.html

Amsterdam has them for women too
https://citymonitor.ai/community/amsterdam-just-installed-world-s-first-retractable-urinal-women-and-it-very-good-thing-1977
but I don't know whether those ones have reached the UK yet.

[fruitsalad]

It wouldn't matter how desperate I was, I could never use one of those :(

[pastafreak]

Would you know what it was if you saw one though?
Obviously they've been safe to use until now...and this was someone working on it...so not the 'usual' circumstances.

[barry1010]

Terrible incident.

I remember the cast iron urinals in the city streets, you could see the bottom of the legs as you walked past.

Nothing similar for the ladies, though.

[nicebloke1]

You have to remember, this man was working on the underneath of this toilet. Repair work / installation.

[tomus42]

Would it not be better to have them above ground all the time? Just a thought.

I get that they'd want to limit the time when they can be used, but automate an opening on them rather than having the whole thing rising out of the ground surely?

[ZebuSanctuary]

Very sad indeed.

In terms of safety, when working on hydraulic systems never position yourself underneath the lifting platform (load). The piston in a single activating cylinder can come down at an alarming rate in the event of a fractured hose.

Condolences to his family.