Beware the Ice

Back when I was attending college, there was a winter storm, but I figured I could not afford to miss a significant math class, and decided I would be fine driving my four-wheel drive Jeep Wagoneer, if I left early and took my time driving. I was right all through the neighborhood until I reached an intersection with a traffic signal which I arrived at just as it was turning red. I carefully applied the brakes and they did not hold, then pumped them (not being anti-lock), as I had been instructed a few years before in driver's education classes. The next thing I knew was that the black ice that I had not seen, had sent me into an uncontrolled spin. I drifted through five lanes with miraculously no vehicles nearby, and up onto a traffic island that finally stopped my slide. You have to be especially cautious on roads in this weather. The irony of that event was I arrived at the college and found out all the classes had been cancelled due to snow and ice.