Quote:
Originally posted by theking
Not really. The blade is lowered, so he should have seen her standing there at that point, but if he began to move forward and raised the blade he cannot see what is immediately in front of him (I know this because I have operated a dozer before) and could have assumed that she had moved out of the way. In addition from inside the enclosed cab his chances of hearing anyone yelling at him would be slim to none. I have serious doubts that the dozer operator intentionally ran over her, but I of course don't know this to be fact.
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why would he raise the blade if he's trying to shift the soil in front of him? the reports said that he ran over her blade lowered, and reversed over her blade lowered - if the blade was raised she could have slipped under it and out of harms way. I too have operated heavy machinery like bulldozers and back-hoes, although not in a professional sense (my father was a plumber and owned heavy equipment). I find it a little hard to believe it wasn't done intentionally (knowing it would be impossible to prove otherwise), although not impossible of course. If you bulldoze houses with people inside them, I don't see why you wouldn't swat down a protestor thats annoying you if you could get away with it. There were other protestors there that he would have been able to see motioning when she was in trouble.. eh.. anyways.. it is kinda useless conjecture getting this far into it as neither of us knows. For arguments sake however i'd teeter on the "intentional" side. The guy is a hardened army recruit in a tense situation, not your local back-hoe driver.