Long ago, early one morning, I was standing talking to my secretary and suddenly through the window saw a bulldozer hit the wall of the office of our VP of Manufacturing. I thought someone had just come too close and then was backing away. However, after a brief bounce back, the bulldozer came back at the wall and came charging down and through with a vengeance. It ran halfway through the building before a post in the middle held it up temporarily and long enough for someone to climb through the open wall, get on it, and turn it off.
Our property was about three feet lower in elevation than the adjacent lot where construction was about to start. This was in December and it was apparently common for operators to start the equipment and let it warm up a while before getting on it. The bulldozer had jumped into gear.
It missed the gas connection to the building by about 3 feet. Gas and electric immediately cut off. The problem is now a bulldozer sitting in the floor in the middle of an office building, odor of diesel fuel which permeated all papers in nearby cabinets. The office furniture was crushed to about 1" thickness. Now, how to remove the bulldozer. Couldn't be driven out so a crane brought in and temporary patch to wall and shut down for a few days.
Took a couple of weeks to get hole in wall patched and roof and ceiling repaired and before any work next door was allowed to continue, posts were erected every 18" or so along the entire side of the lot.
Scary but could have been much worse. The adjacent office had no window and a lady sat in it with her back to the wall. Also it was the office outside of which was the gas meter. We had time to get her out with no injury but a few feet to that side and could have been deadly.
Just, Bob.
