Colorado bulldozer incident

[digger242j]

I imagine everybody's heard the story about the guy who used a dozer to wreck the town of Granby Colorado the other day. If not, a search on Google news will turn up several dozen stories about it.

While it's regretable that any person could end up going to such measures--obviously he was a very troubled individual--the technical aspects are sure interesting!

I've been trying to figure out what kind of dozer it was. Out of all the news coverage I've read, I've only seen reference to the specific model in two of them. It was said to be a D-5. I don't know, but from the pictures it sure looks bigger than a 5.

Also, I'm curious as to what finally stopped the thing. The pictures show it partially inside a building. Did he get high-centered on something and become unable to back up? Or did the police manage to damage something that finally failed and she broke down?

I've been wondering too, how might any of us thought to disable such a machine, if we'd been in a position to offer advice? One of the stories said the owner of the cement plant tried to upend the dozer with a front loader, but was unsuccessful.

The whole thing certainly has my imagination going....

[Oversized2]

From the news vidio I saw it looked like an older D9. One clip it looked like there was am lot of steam coming from the radiator area. Probably took some shots, Slow death. I think it fell into a lower level of a building. Steel grousers don't have a lot of traction on concrete. As for stopping this type of situation, find a weak spot, Something bigger, or trap it. Just my thoughts

[Steve Frazier]

This brings mixed feelings to me. I certainly understand his frustration with government, I'm having my own problems here, but violence is not the way to solve problems.

His engineering is to be commended, he certainly built a machine that got the job done and was next to impossible to stop. My thought was the radiator as far as stopping him, I think the oil pan would have been next to impossible to access. If he armored the radiator, hydraulic oil tank and fuel tank, there's really no way to stop this machine short of military weaponry.

A steel bar heavy enough to jam the tracks would be virtually impossible to lift and extremely hazardous to place strategically. He did his homework.

[digger242j]

Yeah, the first thing I thought of was trying to jam something steel into the tracks.

As I thought more about it today, I remembered a very simple anti-tank weapon that got the job done for the Russians in WWII--the "Molotov Cocktail". (Admittedly, not a very pleasent thing to consider...)


This brings mixed feelings to me. I certainly understand his frustration with government, I'm having my own problems here,...

Yeah, but I know you--you'd still be a good sport. :)

I dunno how much of this was actually "frustration with government" as opposed to just being a *really* sore loser...


...Something bigger, or trap it. ...

Now there's a million dollar idea! New "reality TV" show--"Battle of the Heavy Equipment"! Wadda Ya think, Steve? Potential sponsorship? :D

[RonG]

Here are 34 pics taken by a private citizen that are pretty interesting.
I still can't determine what kind of dozer it is,it is pretty big,bigger than a D8 I think....bigger than a TD25....could be a D9 or one of the bigger Komatsus.
This is one of those things that we see only once or twice in a lifetime like an eclipse.
I am sure that more than one person has had an "what if"go through his mind and this particular guy had the right combination of resources to make it happen.I cannot say it was the right thing to do but I can look at these pics and say THERE!!
TAKE THAT!!! LOL
It is interesting that they are allowing other tracked equipment on the pavement there,it is forbidden in this part of the world,there are rubber tired machines that can do anything they need done there. Have a look at these pics,now you don't really need to go out and do it!!! LOL Ron

http://cbjukraine5.home.comcast.net/granby/source/dscn5334.htm

[Steve Frazier]

Thanks for the link, Ron.

You may be right about it being Komatsu, this is the first color photo I've seen and the orange looks right for Komatsu. He certainly did his homework with the armor, it looks like all vulnerable components are shielded. I think the only way you'd stop this is with a bigger machine or high explosives underneath it. Otherwise, armor piercing military rounds would be needed.

[digger242j]

Yeah, Ron, thank you. Those are some very interesting pictures.

[digger242j]

I realize that most will not have read this post in time, but I understand "Inside Edition" is going to have something on about the incident this evening (Monday, June 14th). It was supposed to have been on last Friday, but got bumped by coverage of President Reagan's funeral.