Bulldozers don't kill people. People kill people.
Back in the late 70's, my Dad got a call one day, inviting him to testify as
an expert witness in a trial. Seems an open pit coal mine employee got run
over by an earthmoving machine while it was being used to clean up some
mudslide damage on one of the haul roads. The employee ignored (and actually
moved) the signs the mining company had posted across the beginning of the
road that told workers that the road was closed for repairs.
As he rounded a curve, his car was crushed by the machine as it was backing
up to make another pass at picking up dirt from the slide. As a former
operator of one of these machines, I can assure you that there is virtually
no view to the rear that would allow an operator to see a car that was
immediately behind the machine. Here is a photo of one being transported in
your neck of the woods
http://tinyurl.com/3ykcjs
At any rate, the widow got a lawyer and sued the coal company and
Caterpillar. The coal company was sued for negligence since they did not
have guards stationed along the road. Caterpillar was sued for not having
mirrors all over the machine to aid the operator in backing up.
The widow's attorney had hired an engineer to design a mirror "system" that
would position mirrors in key places on the machine, thus providing perfect
visibility for the operator.
My Dad was on the stand for about 2 minutes while he explained that even 100
mirrors wouldn't have helped. When the attorney challenged him on that
assertion, my Dad asked the engineer if he had bothered to turn the machine
on and road test it after he had devised his mirror system. The engineer
responded that of course he hadn't, due to the fact that he was not
qualified to drive it.
My Dad looked over at the judge and asked him if he had ever driven a car
with a slightly loose mirror, and the judge nodded that he had, and said
that he couldn't see anything clearly. My Dad also explained that when those
machines are loaded, they typically get so full of material that the dirt
and rocks boil over the top of the restraint you can see in the picture. Of
course, the first load would wipe out any mirrors that the engineer had
positioned there.
The judge scratched his chin for a moment, and told my Dad that he was
excused. He looked at the Cat attorney and the coal company attorney and
told them that the case was dismissed. He looked at the widow and said
"Madam, I am truly sorry for your loss. But the fact remains that your
husband didn't die because of the negligence of either the coal company or
Caterpillar. He died because he used extremely poor judgment in his actions
that day."
Then he looked at the widow's attorney and said "Mr. Jones, the next time
you decide to bring a lawsuit that requires the use of expert witnesses,
you'd better check to see if your experts have common sense to go along with
their pedigrees."
The moral of the story is "There's no vaccine".
Paul Nelson
Office 512-392-2577
Cell 708-670-6978
nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-nontech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-nontech-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Dave Kahn
Sent: Saturday, January 19, 2008 6:06 AM
To: Non-Technical Discussion about the AS400 / iSeries
Subject: Re: Solving World Hunger with the System i and
maybehelpingtheplatform
On 17/01/2008, Paul Nelson <nelsonp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Don't forget Caterpillar. They manufacture lots of equipment used in
agriculture, besides their construction stuff.
Caterpillar may not be a great choice for this section. See for
example <
http://www.cofe.anglican.org/news/pr29cat06.html> and
<
http://www.catdestroyshomes.org/>
I'm not taking a personal position on this, just pointing out that
it's a controversial issue and using the name to promote an ethical
image for System i could rebound.
midrange.com
