Imagine going to work and finding a dead body in the bathroom or break room. You’d likely freak out and don’t think that’s a normal situation to experience at work. Well, for subway workers in New York, it is.
According to a recent story published by The Chief Leader, subway employees are not exactly happy with their unusual work conditions. They’re not complaining about a laundry list of things, but they feel that their work environment would be better if they weren’t faced with dead bodies during the course of their day—and we think most people would agree.
Even for those that don’t have to see the body, knowing there’s a dead body in the room where you eat lunch is an unsettling feeling.
Once the NYPD arrives after an incident, if they don’t deem the situation a homicide the deceased person is moved to the nearest room available until the NYC Medical Examiner can get there to remove the body—which can be about 2 hours later.
The vice president of the Transport Workers Union Local 100, Derrick Echevarria, says that after something happens “they remove the body to the first room available, and it has been going on for years.”
This is done to allow the train service to resume as soon as possible after an incident occurs and remove the body from any public space. However, Echevarria mentioned this is something they’re working on fixing and that the concern was “brought up at [their] last safety meeting with management.”
Featured image source [Photo Modified: flickr/Metropolitan Transportation Authority of the State of New York /CC by 2.0]