Who can recall the incredible Caterpillar forklift lawsuit incident many years ago? (STR it was late 80's/early 90's?).
A forklift operator had rolled his forklift, doing something stupid with (turning fast with mast raised, possibly uneven ground). As the forklift rolled, the operator got flung out (no seatbelt), some part of the forklift (probably cabin leg), landed on top of him, he lost both his legs.
He took Caterpillar to court over the basic instability of the Caterpillar forklift design (hey, I thought all forklifts with a raised mast become unstable, but let's not ruin a good lawyers story).
Caterpillar got into top gear with their best lawyers and company experts, they were going to laugh this case out of court.
One senior Cat manager was so enthusiastic about getting the defence right, he even took the same model forklift for a drive, and carried out the same foolish manoeuvre to prove up the forklifts great stability!
Guess what? The forklift rolled, the Cat manager got flung out, the same forklift component landed on him, and the manager lost both his legs!!
Caterpillar dropped their forklift instability defence, and settled the lawsuit out of court.
The Cat managers accident was never revealed outside Cat, but like everything, the incident became known amongst certain people in the industry.