Volume XXXVIII, Issue 1
November 8, 2011
Matt McPhee
INTERNET OUT: A Simcoe Street crash just south of Niagara Drive knocked out Internet and off-campus services for students.
Crash knocks out school Internet Matt McPhee The Chronicle
Students arrived at Durham College and UOIT early Halloween morning to find that the Internet service was unavailable, as well as off campus services such as WebCT and MyCampus. It was the aftermath of an ambulance colliding with a utility pole Oct. 29. The pole carries the fibre optic wire that provides Internet service to the two institutions. ORION, Durham and UOIT’s Internet service provider, links a large majority of the colleges and universities through a fibre optic network. “Unfortunately, a lot of the fibre that runs isn’t always un-
derground. So in this case it was running with the power lines along the poles. Everything was severed due to the accident,” said Mike Larmer, IT Service director of technology operations. The fibre was restored by Oshawa PUC Network by midnight, but some time during Sunday there was another outage and more complications. Larmer said it was fully restored by Monday morning, shortly before noon. The Ambutrans patient transfer vehicle struck a hydro pole and burst into flames 200 metres south of Niagara Drive. Residents of the area quickly congregated around the scene, resulting in home videos and photographs pouring into local media outlets and flooding the
Internet. “My girlfriend noticed the power was out and our neighbour told her an ambulance hit a telephone pole. We saw the commotion and took some pictures,” said Gary Branton, a Simcoe Street resident. Two female employees exited the private transfer vehicle safely and were transported to Lakeridge Health Oshawa after complaining about neck and back pains.There was no patient aboard and the injuries were reported to be minor. The driver, a woman from Toronto, said she had mechanical issues with the steering wheel after she moved into the left lane to pass a slower-moving vehicle while heading north on Simcoe. The crash caused an oxygen
tank aboard the vehicle to explode, which caused a transformer to burst into flames. Consequently, the hydro in the area was down for several hours. Witnesses canvassed by Durham Regional Police said speed was not a factor nor cell phone use, but the investigation is still ongoing and DRP are still awaiting more statements. “It may be difficult to determine with the ambulance burned to its chassis,” said Sergeant Nancy van Rooy. “It’s down to its bare bones.” Simcoe Street, which was temporarily closed from Niagara Drive to Glovers Road, was eventually opened to two lanes as Oshawa PUC repaired the power lines.
“Generally Oshawa PUC lays the fibre and the fibre is their property. And then other Internet service providers can lease that fibre optic cable to provide their service on.” What can the college do to avoid another outage such as this?Larmer said the question that always comes up is, “why don’t we have a redundant connection?” “Of course that would be ideal but it is fairly costly, nevertheless, with the size of this institution and the amount of students that we have here,” said Larmer. “We’re certainly going to look at having a redundant connection, so should any catastrophic incident like that ever happen again, we have got a backup service to keep things going.”
Door-to-door for tricks and treats Tara Oades The Chronicle
Tara Oades
TRICK OR EAT: Volunteers Suapan Lobana, Gina Molleson, and Kelsie Howell signing people in and handing out routes before people began travelling door-to-door.
Witches, sharks, wolves, and video game characters were just some of the costumes worn by volunteers participating in the local Trick or Eat event that took place at the campus on Oct. 31. At 6:30 p.m. Halloween night, Durham College and UOIT students filled room SSB 119, not to study, but to get ready to trick or treat around Oshawa to collect food donations, and to raise awareness of
hunger across Canada. Trick or Eat is a national food drive in which volunteers collect non-perishable food items for food banks locally and across Canada. The Campus Food Centre has participated in the event for the past four years and raised over $5,000 in food donations last year. “I hope to get as much food as possible,” said Trisha Hooja, a volunteer from the Alpha Gamma Delta sorority. “There was a lot of effort put into the planning of the event.”
See A Treat on Page 2