Over-correcting a common cause of crashes

- Published: Nov. 16, 2010

Imagine that you're driving on a rural highway at 80 km/h and you reach down to change the radio station. As you take your eyes off the road for that split second, and look down to switch stations, all of a sudden you realize you've steered your passenger-side tires onto the highway shoulder.

What would you do?

• Would you do what many drivers do, try to get the vehicle slowed down as quickly as possible by hitting the brakes?
• Would you try to get the vehicle back on the highway as fast as possible by quickly steering back to the left? 
• How about combining those two actions, hit the brakes while swerving back to the left? 

Judging from the 1,662 casualty collisions in Alberta in 2009 due to vehicles running of the road, many drivers do the wrong thing. 

Don't overreact

Hitting the brakes or steering quickly left can result in either rolling the vehicle or slingshotting across the highway, and hitting something on the other side of the road.

It is natural to want to get the vehicle back on the road immediately, however if for any reason, you drive off the travel portion of the highway, relax and:

1. Grip the steering wheel firmly (to avoid over-steering, a 9 and 3 o'clock position is best). 
2. Avoid steering the vehicle immediately back onto the road. 
3. Ease your foot off the gas pedal to slow down. 
4. If possible, avoid braking. If you do need to brake, use a gradual pressure on the brake pedal.
5. Use your mirrors to check for traffic behind you, check your blind spot, signal, look well ahead and ease back onto the pavement. 
6. Return to the road being careful not to cross the centre line and immediately straighten your vehicle in the proper travel lane. 

A final reminder...

Remember, any abrupt movement back onto the highway could cause your vehicle to cross the centre line into the path of oncoming traffic. Many head-on collisions in Canada occur as a result of over-correcting on the steering.