Man Hospitalized in Freak Airport Toilet Accident

Just goes to show that there are worse things than sitting on a public toilet seatnot sitting on the seat.

Passenger Jin Pai, 35, was standing on the rim of a toilet in Hefei Xinqiao International Airport in the city of Hefei, the capital city of eastern China’s Anhui Province, when it smashed to the ground.

According to airport officials he had not wanted to let his bottom touch the seat because he was ‘worried it might not be clean’

In the US there’s usually toilet seat covers you can use. Or you can cover the toilet seat in toilet paper. That requires a bathroom to have toilet paper, something that isn’t common still in much of China (it wasn’t long ago that I would carry toilet paper with me even around Beijing).

Of course in the US you’ve also got toilet seat covers that aren’t likely to transmit germs.

I don’t blame the man for not wanting to sit on the toilet seat. I’ve been to many airports where I wouldn’t want to either.

Unfortunately this toilet tipped over and shattered, and the man was injured. He was “found bleeding on the toilet floor after he had telephoned his travelling companions for help.”

It seems he told police that the toilet ‘just collapsed’ while he was sitting on it, the article presumes that he was fearful of accusations that he broke the toilet and that he’d be required to pay compensation. Whereas in the US he’d have a pretty good lawsuit…

Bonus alternative title for this blog post: What’s grosser than gross?

(HT: Alan H.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. Actually it’s more so the fact that Chinese people not from the big cities are more used to squatting, so they don’t really know how to use the modern toilet.

  2. @Samuel – so much so that even in rural Australia there are now pictorial guides how to use the toilet.

  3. REF ” he broke the toilet and that he’d be required to pay compensation”

    I made my first trip to China ( as an American) in 1978– broke a glass in my hotel room — requested floor attendant to clean — at check out I was charged 5 cents for broken glass

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