Wife of man crushed to death by toilet in London wants £200,000 compensation

The widow of a worker who was crushed underneath a falling toilet in central London is fighting for £200,000 compensation for his death.

Kevin Holding, 60, died after conducting work in Shaftesbury Avenue, when a urinal fell onto him ‘without warning’, killing him almost instantly.

The retractable toilet unit, manufactured by Dutch company Urilift, has become an increasingly familiar sight in London’s West End and is designed to be lowered below ground during the day, then raised up for use by revellers at night.

But while conducting maintenance on the toilet, Mr Holding, from Beckenham, Kent, died from ‘catastrophic’ injuries from the impact.

His long-term partner, Katrina Woods, has now launched a six-figure damages claim over his death – suing Mr Holding’s employers, Hi-Tech Washrooms Solutions Ltd.

After Mr Holding entered underneath the toilet, the urinal ‘suddenly and without warning dropped and fell onto him’, his barrister said, blaming the fatal drop on a ‘catastrophic failure of a fitting in its hydraulic system’.

In court documents, Ms Wood’s barrister claimed Mr Holding’s bosses were at fault in failing to provide adequate training and in allegedly failing to properly maintain the urinal which ended up killing him.

Barrister Simon Brindle said: ‘The urinal dropped as a result of a catastrophic failure of a fitting in its hydraulic system. The fitting failed due to excessive corrosion.’

He argued that through poor maintenance, the company allowed the fitting to become ‘excessively corroded’ and also failed to replace it in time to avoid the tragedy.

The company is denying all liability.

In court documents, lawyers for Hi-Tech insist that another company was tasked with maintaining the urinal.

While acknowledging that the tragedy probably occurred due to corrosion in the hydraulic system, defence barrister Anna Symington claimed: ‘The defendant was not responsible for the maintenance of the hydraulic system; further, the defendant was not a specialist hydraulic contractor.

‘Hi-teach Washrooms had no responsibility for the fitting and could not reasonably have been aware of its corroded nature.’

On top of that, the defence legal team say that Mr Holden was an experienced and well-trained operator who ‘contributed’ to the accident through his own negligence in ‘failing to take sufficient care for his own safety’.

Ms Symington said Mr Holden was at fault in ‘failing to lower the urinal before commencing work inside the inspection chamber’, trying to replace the urinal’s water pump while the urinal was raised, and in failing to seek help if he felt it was necessary.

The case has yet to reach court and be tested in evidence before a judge.

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