There are various municipal reactions to human waste. Some cities pay small fortunes for public restrooms, see $1.7 MillionToilet (April 2024). That is a singular reaction to an arguably larger challenge. The City of San Francisco estimates its homeless population at 8,323 in 2024, and it built one toilet for almost two million dollars. London sees a larger issue with human waste.
The challenge there includes both the unhoused population and "partygoers and clubbers (who) often end up taking their business to the streets." The solution to the streets was to install public urinals in the streets. This, of course, begs the question of how others may find relief in such situations.
The British adopted a Dutch invention in 2002 so that these public urinals are available at night, but not visible during the day. They are called "pop-up urinals." A remote control is pushed and a three-person, stainless steel, facility ascends from the ground and remains until retracted the next day.
The subject became one of workplace safety and an illustration of causation proof when a British worker was crushed to death by a pop-up urinal in January 2023, according to the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). After he was killed, a crane was required to extract his body. Two years on, his family is still waiting for answers as to how he was killed.
The story is familiar to the realm of work accidents. Too frequently, accidents occur in a work setting. That is improving persistently across America,. Few seem to know or recollect that the Florida Division of Workers' Compensation has a statistical tool that retrieves and displays data on frequency, settlement, indemnity payments, medical payments, settlement, and so much more. In 2024 there were 46,948 and in 2023 60,268 "total cases." In fairness, that 2024 figure could still increase as events last year are reported.
Nonetheless, safety in the workplace is effective. Nevertheless, workplace fatalities remain a reality, among the employed and self-employed. The Bureau of Labor Statistics says that 2022 (the most recent year with figures) saw just over 300 workplace deaths in Florida. Compared to our population, that figure can be made to appear a very small percentage. But, that was 300 people, which is significant. The figures were closer to 200 in 2013 and 2014.
A third of those deaths were "Transportation incidents," a quarter were "Falls, slips, trips," and fifteen percent were "Exposure to harmful substances ..." That leaves almost a quarter in the "all other" category. Nonetheless, it provides some guidance about where one might be most concerned. And, it does not include any reference to the "pop-up urinal," or to the broader inexplicable crush injury death. An unexplained crush is seemingly rare.
Is accepting the death of a family member easier when the cause is more patent? We are seemingly hardwired with a desire to know why and how. We are seemingly particularly curious in the event of death. And the family of the man crushed by the Soho pop-up urinal would like answers. They have a mystery because the death was unwitnessed. Two years later, they still seek the how and why.
The challenge with not knowing may be speculation. A near-Paradise news story from 2017 illuminates a workplace death that generated conspiracy theories for years. The involvement of investigative reporting and multiple news stories found answers for a family, but that effort was extraordinary (10 news stories). Not every family is afforded that volume of professional effort and persistence. Would that event have received such attention if the victim had not worked for a congressman?
In the end, the point is that there will be accidents, and sometimes the only witness will be the victim. When that ends in death, the story may require investigation and explanation by others. While this is a burden, it is what families, coworkers, and others need. The how and why is an imperative to both grieving and recovery. The family in Soho, England continues to wait, and the news coverage has not yet driven an explanation.
