Despite everything you learn about reacting to emergencies, sometimes instinct takes over. That dog who jumps out in front of you or the backseat passenger who yells, “Watch out!” for no good reason can make you overreact. You move before you think. Maybe it’s a hard turn or a hard stop. That doesn’t matter. You make a “corrective” move unnecessarily โ a move that can actually cause you to lose control.
Overcorrecting for something is dangerous. Too sudden a stop can throw you into an uncontrollable skid. Too sudden a turn can cause your vehicle to roll over, or you could inadvertently wind up in an adjacent travel lane and at the mercy of oncoming traffic. If you find that you have instinctively โ or due to lack of experience โ overcompensated for something, follow these steps: