Math 252 Lecture 16: Monday , February 8th 1999.
Today a snowstorm hit the morning commute up Burnaby Mountain,
leaving abandoned vehicles sprawled out all over the road. I
have a 4-wheel-drive truck, but it's one of the old fashioned
ones which requires the front hubs to be locked (from the
outside) before the front axle can be engaged. I put on the
parking brake and got out to lock the front hubs, but the truck
started sliding backwards towards the car behind me! The road
was so slippery that the parking brake wouldn't hold the truck! I
jumped back into the truck and put on the brakes. It was at this
point that my brake lights came on and and the pedal went down to
the floor. The hydraulic line picked an interesting time to
spring a leak! Anyway, I spun the rear tires and got over to the
curb where the parking brakes would hold the truck, with the help
of the tires against the curb. Then I managed to get out and
engage the front hubs. After that, I shifted into 4WD and drove
past the stuck and abandoned cars, and managed to make it up the
hill. (Good thing I wasn't going downhill, with no brakes.)
Upon reaching the class, I found that only a few students had
made it, mainly those living in residence. A bus was jacknifed
across the road and the other busses had stopped running. I
decided to cancel today's lecture, and extended the due-date for
handing in HW#04 until Wednesday.
(Then I took my truck over to the Shell station to get the
hydraulic line fixed.)
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Revised 14 February 1999 by
John Hebron.