London Underground Keeps Dead Bodies Of Suicide Victims In Bins, Documentary Reveals

A new documentary has revealed that London Underground workers are urged to place suicide victims' bodies in cupboards and bins in order not to disrupt service. About 50 people commit suicide each year in "the tube," which serves more than one billion riders annually.

In a documentary titled "Confessions From The Underground," subway workers anonymously divulge details about the system's disturbing practice that's meant to help keep trains on schedule and avoid delays, the Telegraph reports.

The bins often serve as temporary storage locations until the proper authorities arrive to retrieve the bodies.

At least one subway worker said he found the practice disrespectful but also acknowledged he understood the reasoning.

"...Do I keep the station shut until the coroner and his guys gets there and inconvenience the rest of London?" he says in the documentary, according the Telegraph.

In addition, some employees say they've heard stories of workers accidentally stumbling upon dead bodies while looking for supplies, according to the British newspaper Metro.

A London Underground spokesperson told Metro the system offers counseling and therapy, should any of their roughly 19,000 workers request it.

Channel 4, the station airing the documentary, released a statement describing what viewers can expect to see on the show.

HuffPost UK has the details:

"This documentary provides a rare glimpse into the depths of the iconic Tube network that passengers don't see, as workers reveal the dilemmas and pressures that they must reconcile to keep this hugely complex and strained system running."

Among the concerns on the minds of employees are signal failures, emergency response and train derailments.

"Any moment it could go spinning off into chaos...," one driver says in the documentary, according to the Daily Mirror.

The documentary, which uses actors to portray subway workers, was directed by Liz Unna and produced by Peter Dale and Katherine Haywood, according to the Radio Times.

"Confessions From The Underground" will air at 10 p.m. GMT on Thursday, Feb. 2, in the United Kingdom on Channel 4.

Comments

[rrzeus26]

02:40 PM on 02/03/2012

What if it's a crime scene. So subway workers are allowed to move dead bodies and assume that they are all suicides?

[UKguyInUSA]

02:04 PM on 02/03/2012

If someone goes "off the rails" then they shouldn't be on them...it's a shocking oxymoron!

[Learical]

10:50 AM on 02/03/2012

If it's a 'body', then it's probably 'dead'.

[natal plum]

10:47 AM on 02/03/2012

Practice is disrespectful? How so? People committing suicide in a public place in a very public way kind of devalue, demean and disrespect themselves without any help. The notion of shoving a carcass in a bin so as to not further impede the transit system isn't disrespectful. I'm not talking about an innocent accident victim here

[Imago1122]

11:57 AM on 02/04/2012

Are you actually saying that an accident victim's body deserves more respect than a suicide's---because one's innocent and the other not?

I understand the reasoning of the London Underground, but once again I stress: I don't think the body of a suicide, in a public or private setting, merits devaluation by any sort of measure.

[natal plum]

12:55 PM on 02/04/2012

That is exactly and actually what I am saying. I don't advocate the devaluation of someone's life as a general rule simply because they die by suicide. However when one does it in a public way in a public place they make a spectacle of themselves which entirely devalues and demeans themselves. Carting them off so that public transit can continue is an unfortunate byproduct of their own unfortunate choice of venue. They're already dead, demeaned and devalued by their own actions. Toting them away quickly and getting them out of the public way is also getting them out of the public eye AND is far less demeaning then putting a sheet over them and letting them lie there for hours while hundreds of people gape and gawk in morbid curiosity. Hiding them from the public view preserves what little dignity they might have left. Seriously, think about it.

[bhamnikwa]

10:29 AM on 02/03/2012

I'm sure it's dramatized to the full extreme to victimize people that obviously didn't care enough about the people they would inconvenience in their venture to give up on life, and try to gain that last grasp of "look at me" attention. A mere glimpse at one persons set mentality that the world revolves around them. Farewell my friend, farewell to thee.

[irrenmann]

10:27 AM on 02/03/2012

People would be outraged if services were closed due to the suicides. People would be outraged if the dead bodies were kept out of sight so services could continue. In each case the outrage will be directed at the Underground workers (who are not responsible for the suicide) instead of at the person who committed suicide (who is).

[sugarcreekchile]

10:21 AM on 02/03/2012

So what are they suppose to do? Leave the body on the tracks and disrupt service for thousands? Since about 50 people decide to off themselves in "the tube" each year, should they be expected to run a private morgue and pay for it? They do what is practical and put the body wherever happens to be convenient until the authorities can pick it up. As far as being disrespectful, it's a corpse and the person who inhabited it didn't demonstrate having much respect for their own life. It certainly doesn't matter to the corpse where it's stashed while awaiting a trip to the morgue.

[garylinn]

11:11 AM on 02/03/2012

Your post makes the most sense

[squeeks910]

10:16 AM on 02/03/2012

Please allow the dead to rest in peace........Respect the deceased for Gods Sake.

[notlintfree]

10:40 AM on 02/03/2012

"Please allow the dead to rest in PIECES".

[Learical]

10:51 AM on 02/03/2012

sick

[listgirl3]

09:54 AM on 02/03/2012

This is just so disrespectful.

[jtalc58909]

10:10 AM on 02/03/2012

You can't disrespect a dead person, they don't care.

[listgirl3]

10:29 AM on 02/03/2012

Really? Is that how you'd feel about one your own if they died?! Yikes!

[calibellemom06]

09:48 AM on 02/03/2012

Sickening!
At least one subway worker said he found the practice disrespectful but also acknowledged he understood the reasoning.

"...Do I keep the station shut until the coroner and his guys gets there and inconvenience the rest of London?" he says

Really? A persons life means nothing that desperation drove them to this point and you are concerned with slowing down someones train to get somewhere....
That is a shame--and if someone took even 5 minutes to acknowledge the person--then that might have stopped the suicide.

[lovesjason1212]

09:43 AM on 02/03/2012

Very disturbing and sad. Not only for the people who have died but for the workers as well. How do you even go about asking employees to move people who jumped in front of a train? What kind of training do you get to do that sort of task? I also think about the conductor of the train I sure hope they don't witness each suicide committed. How sad it is for everyone involved :(

[xmaseveeve]

08:15 AM on 02/03/2012

So disgusting whe Jeremy Clarkson said, on The One Show that overland trains should just ignore dead bodies.

[peeowedaboutit2]

07:54 AM on 02/03/2012

Huffpost, I've had it!
I'm starting a swear jar. Every time you use the word "shocking", I want you to put a quarter in the jar
Dammit!

[deltabluuz]

08:00 AM on 02/03/2012

I'm going to put a quarter in mine every time they post an unflattering freeze frame picture of people that don't agree with politically as well as partial and out of context statements by those same people. We will both be very rich very soon.

[peeowedaboutit2]

08:03 AM on 02/03/2012

Lol! I'm already planning a vacation!

[LivelyLexie]

09:17 AM on 02/03/2012

Don't forget "outrage" lol

[liephman88]

06:50 AM on 02/03/2012

I thought they had a special dumpster for that kind of thing? I would think putting a body that had been hit by a train into a closet would be a messy business.

[notlintfree]

10:47 AM on 02/03/2012

Remember Mel Brook's classic , "Young Frankenstein?" "Brain Depository - please deposit brains through slot in door" ...

[liephman88]

03:04 PM on 02/03/2012

Yes ! where Eye Gore found Abby Nornals brain for Frankenstein's monster.

[Jasonperkins]

06:40 AM on 02/03/2012

meat train