You're driving happily along with your mind pretty much on autopilot when suddenly the car starts to swerve and you know you didn't do that. Your car can swerve for any number of reasons such as the wheels hitting the safety strip on the sides or in the middle of the road or hitting a small patch of ice or a spot where there’s standing water on the road. A swerve feels like the car has suddenly changed direction.
Take your foot off of the gas pedal immediately if you feel a jerking change of direction. Although your first instinct will be to just yank your steering wheel and brake, you don’t want to do that. You need to slowly decrease your speed because the car needs to slow down in order for you to regain control of the steering. The point of slowing down is to give the tires a chance to gain some more traction so that you can get better control of the car.
Don’t put your foot on the brake, either. This is almost a knee jerk reaction to anything that happens that makes the car feel even a little bit out of control. Braking when the car starts to serve will throw it into a skid and perhaps even into a total spinout. This is much more dangerous and a little harder to get the car under your control again.
Keep your hands on the steering wheel until the car is completely in your control again. Be sure not to jerk the wheel or try to pull the car abruptly back from the swerve. Doing these things will place you in far greater danger because they will also put your car into a skid or a spin. Turn your steering wheel gently into the nearest safe driving lane or onto the shoulder of the road.
Straighten the wheel when you get the car into the lane in the proper position. Gently put your foot back onto to the gas pedal and slowly give it a little gas. Now you can drive the car into the lane that you really need to be in. While it’s kind of tough to generate a sudden swerve in order to practice, you can get the feel of it by practicing driving in sharp S curves in a big open parking lot. Make sure that you have permission to be there before you go, and–for your own protection–take a parent or other adult for supervision if you’re a new driver.
