The Caterpillar RD7 That Killed Its Operator Twice and He Came Back Both Times TVA Dam Construction

Описание: Same man. Same machine. Declared dead twice.

In 1936, on a TVA dam construction site in Tennessee, a Caterpillar RD7 bulldozer
rolled off a collapsing embankment and buried its operator. The crew called it.
The accident report was started. Earl Dawson had no pulse.

Fifty minutes later, he was breathing.

He came back to work. He requested the same machine.

Fourteen months later at Pickwick Landing Dam the ground opened beneath
that same RD7 without warning. A catastrophic fill subsidence. Thirty feet wide.
Less than three seconds. The machine went in tail-first.

The site physician found no heartbeat.

Two minutes later, spontaneous respiration resumed.

This is the story of the Caterpillar RD7 that killed its operator twice and the man who came back both times.

IN THIS VIDEO:

▸ The Caterpillar RD7 (1935-1940) full machine breakdown
78 HP drawbar | 21,020 lbs | 13.6L 4 cylinder diesel | open operator station
▸ TVA dam construction 1936-1937 Wheeler Dam & Pickwick Landing Dam
▸ How saturated fill embankments fail under crawler tractor weight
▸ Entrapped water pockets in rapid-fill dam construction
▸ 1930s earthwork safety standards and what they cost operators
▸ The recovery operation: two crawlers, tow cables, a recovery block
▸ Why Earl Dawson requested the same machine after the first accident

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