What should you do if your car starts skidding on an icy/slippery road and you lose control? Did I do everything right?

[WhiteBoyChill]

Had this happen to me today.

Basically I was driving my typical route home today and after passing a car that was turning and yielding to traffic I sped up on the road with like a normal acceleration and then basically completely lost traction and my car started skidding right and so I turned my wheel left but then I started skidding left so I kept turning my wheel repeatedly left and right trying to stabilize because I didn’t want to skid off the road in either direction but I sort of knew I just had to try and stop because I lost control of the car and wasn’t able to reestablish control.

I knew it was best that I tried to brake and stop the car before other cars got near me

And so I applied the brakes gradually just trying to slow down but unfortunately I skidded across the road and spun around 180*

As a precaution, I waited until oncoming traffic passed before I applied the brakes

But yeah in the end I didn’t crash into anyone or anything and I was unharmed.

All that happened was I skidded across the road, spun 180 degrees around, and rode up over a sloped curve onto the edge of some guy's front lawn.

Even my car was totally undamaged.

The only "casualty" per say was a couple of tire tracks in the very front edge of the guy's lawn. The grass on his lawn was dead anyway tho so I figured it wasn’t a big enough deal anyway.

Two cars saw what happened, stopped, and asked me if I was ok but that was it.

They weren't mad or anything and they saw me well ahead of them and had time to stop

But yeah, obviously driving more cautiously on my end and making sure to accelerate much more slowly than usual could have prevented the whole situation on my end.

In all fairness though if it were my decision I’d have never been on the road today and it was ridiculous my college didn’t cancel

[Apple1996]

Remember the gas pedal is your friend in the snow/ice. Using the breaks can cause more issues. I live in a snowy area so I litterally drive in it everyday in the winter. Losing control of your car is pretty common so you gotta get comfortable with the fact that it'll happen. If you don't already get winter tires for your car. If you look it up there's lots of videos on how to drive in the snow safely

[WhiteBoyChill]

I mean, I’ve lost control for like a brief second or so on instances before but never anything like this

[Apple1996]

Yeah it sounded bad 😣 at least you were safe. Driving in the snow and ice sucks

[WhiteBoyChill]

It really does! And honestly they really should’ve cancelled

[alice55]

My father say in this case you need to accelerate because it give more stability to the car

[WhiteBoyChill]

Actually? I would have thought accelerating would be the worst thing you could do

[alice55]

It's slowing down the worst things you can do in those case, my father was a truck driver during many years so I believe him on those matters.
He say slowing down make the car instable and higher speed give the car more stability so it help but it also depend sometime you can't do anything and the car just go being uncontrollable

[WhiteBoyChill]

I was hesitant about speeding up because the road I was on was ending soon

[WhiteBoyChill]

Before my turn

[DryGermanGuy]

If it’s on an icy road, it’s practically over before you can react. If it’s a slippery/snowy road it depends how much grip you still have. In a modern car with ABS you break hard, release, correct steering and repeat. Does your car have proper winter tires?

[WhiteBoyChill]

The road was icy and no winter tires

[DryGermanGuy]

It sounds that in your state you should get winter tires.

[slatyb]

If your car has anti-lock brakes (it will unless it's very old), you hit the brakes as hard as you can and steer.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Mine’s from 2001

[Dongie]

You were lucky. Thank God. In some instances you might get by feathering the brakes but generally you don't hit the brakes. Steer into the skid like you did.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Oh. You mean like toggling the wheel left and right like I did kind of thing?

[Dongie]

Yeah

[bowenw]

Foot off the accelerator. Don't hit the brakes. Steer in the direction you want to go.

[WhiteBoyChill]

1) I wasn’t on the accelerator

2) I avoided hitting the brakes for as long as possible

3) I literally couldn’t “steer in the direction” I wanted to go. I just wanted to keep going straight but the car kept trying to swerve off the road

[bowenw]

Sometimes it happens so fast, or the conditions are so bad, that nothing helps.

[WhiteBoyChill]

That was the case with me XD

[bowenw]

Sucks. At least you are okay.