She committed suicide by bulldozer, by ignoring her responsiblities to her self, such that she educated herself on "soil mechanics."
Soil mechanics --- she failed to study that at university, where she would have learned how the earth moves.
She placed herself too close to the bulldozer, and when it moved, the earth around it was displaced, as earth around bulldozers usually is.
When the ground sank around Rachel's footing, she lost her footing --- she had placed herself in a position where she would lose her footing.
She placed herself in harm's way.
When the bulldozer backed up, Rachel, without sufficient footing, slipped rapidly down under the front of the bulldozer. As she passed under the blade are and its supporting mechanisms, she banged her head against the bulldozer.
It was a mortal blow.
The bulldozer did not kill her.
The bulldozer did not run over her.
The bulldozer did not "crush" her.
The bulldozer did not attack her.
She, knocked her noggin' against it, but she did not survive her impact.
Her body had no signs of high-pressure displacement of human fluids that always result from severe mechanical displacement.
She was not in the tread path of the bulldozer.
Even given the soil mechanics that provide some elasticity, in contrast to a bulldozer clanking down a paved road, the pressures are so great, in the region of the tread path, that living, and even dead, tissues "give up" their fluids.
That did not happen to Rachel Corrie.
She had a head injury and bleeding from the nose; all signs indicating an unhappy shock to the brain.
She placed herself too close to the bulldozer, and when it moved, the earth around it was displaced, as earth around bulldozers usually is.
When the ground sank around Rachel's footing, she lost her footing --- she had placed herself in a position where she would lose her footing.
Good post. Of course, normal people tend to have the basic intuition to stay far far away from the path of a bulldozer, and therefore would not need to study soil mechanics. I've wondered if her injury was not necessarily fatal, but rather her fate was sealed by those who found her to be more useful... dead. Maybe is was an instantaneous fatal head wound, but if not, it possibly became one through lack of proper medical attention.