Not so much an accident but something that would NOT and could NOT fly today!! In 1979 while working in SLC UT I was second jobbing selling Military surplus trucks/equipment from a slightly less than admirable(SOB stole our last checks as well ALL the SSI and income taxes supposedly paid to the state and fed and ran out on us), was working a contract with UT Power and Light for heavy tracked gear for off normal pipeline service, sold them a series of M88 US tank retrievers for 'Ballast' machines. Third job was part owner of a 1979 K100C but that was another life!!
They then had me as sales rep come out and demonstrate on a steep site. They had been using and tying up three D9 crawlers with winches for the duty they needed elsewhere. Set up the machines two M88 with restraint blades down, extra counterweights had been described and installed and using onboard winches then fed the cables over the road edge to the machine the Cats had been tied to, a Cat excavator hanging on a 45 degree slope cutting trench. Worked fine so they bought the equipment, and I sat there in amazement to watch a Native US Indian(no idea what tribe but suspect Ute), suck down a full bottle of hooch, climbed down the cable to the machine tied in and went to work. At Noonish he came up relieved himself, had a bite of something then sucked down another bottle of hooch and back down. When I asked, the foreman stated OFF THE RECORD, that the guy(un-named) did this everyday, had been for years, only way he could get nerve up was to be one step away from tea totaled.