In the moment just before an accident occurs, Missouri drivers have to make snap decisions about how to react. The Jasper County personal injury attorneys know all too well that these decisions, made in fractions of seconds, can have a tremendous impact on the outcome of a collision. One common mistake that drivers often make is called overcorrecting, or over-steering in response to an event, which normally results in loss of control of the vehicle. When a driver's right-side tires drop off the road into the shoulder or grass, the instinctive response is to panic and jerk the wheel to the left. Often, this means sending the vehicle directly into oncoming traffic. And even if there isn't another vehicle approaching, overcorrecting frequently causes overturning, or collisions with stationary objects, like trees, light poles, etc. As we've seen recently, that kind of mistake can be a costly one.
Within the last two days, two Missouri drivers were killed in accidents because of overcorrecting. On Christmas Day, a Lebanon woman was killed in Pulaski County crash caused by driver overcorrection. 41 year-old Nancy Feldmeier was traveling north on Missouri Highway 133 when she ran off the right side of the road. She then overcorrected, causing her vehicle to run off the left side of the highway and crash into an embankment. Feldmeier was taken to a hospital, but died a few hours later.
Then, on December 26, another overcorrecting error claimed the life of a Jasper County woman. 21 year-old Chelsey Burgess was killed in a collision on Cedar Road, near Carthage. Burgess was traveling west when her car was struck head on by another vehicle: 47 year-old Janiece Siebert had run off the road, overcorrected, and crossed the center line. Burgess was taken to the hospital by ambulance, but died shortly thereafter. Siebert was hospitalized with moderate injuries, and her infant passenger, Malachi Siebert, suffered minor injuries.
MSN Autos ranks overcorrecting in its Top 10 list of Most Lethal Driving Mistakes, right alongside drinking and driving, distracted driving, and running red lights. And a 2005 study by the Department of Transportation found that overcorrection accounted for 25% of run off the road (ROR) crashes.