Carl Hughes - Army Trucks in Korea - Segment 5

Lesson in Driving

When the force of gravity is greater than the static force of friction between two surfaces the moveable object will move. If you are driving a truck uphill your forward velocity will diminish slowly until you come to a standstill. At this point, you will start to slide backwards. Slowly, at first, but your speed will increase in the wrong direction no matter what you do. The roads as constructed by the Koreans were designed for vehicles other than trucks with rubber tires. They had dog legs and switchbacks to get a vehicle from one side of the mountain to the other. We had massive dozers that could cut and fill to eliminate those dog legs and cut backs to straighten out those twists and turns. The driver being young but basically a good driver did everything to avoid the end of this story. As he started up the ice covered hill he noticed that his forward velocity was decreasing no matter what he did. He quickly down shifted and transferred to four wheel drive and still continued to lose forward velocity. When the truck finally came to a stop he tried his brakes. At this point, the truck started going down hill backwards. Thank goodness for an embankment that the rear of the vehicle slammed into just before the fill area started. I suppose every story has a moral. This one is "Never drive up an ice covered hill that is Sun-lit in early afternoon with a lightly loaded truck!"