What To Do If Your Car Starts To Skid

Skidding happens in fractions of a second, and the instinctive response — hit the brakes, jerk the wheel — is almost always the wrong one.

This post covers how to identify the kind of skid you are in, how to respond correctly in the first seconds, what modern safety technology actually does, how to prevent skids before they happen, and what the legal picture looks like when a skid causes a crash. If a skid-related accident has already left you injured, a car accident lawyer can help you understand your options.

Know What Type of Skid You Are In

Identifying the skid type in the first second tells you which response will work and which will make things significantly worse. The three primary types behave differently and require different corrections.

Oversteer: When the Rear of Your Car Slides Out

Oversteer happens when the rear wheels lose traction, and the back of the car begins to swing outward — the fishtail that many Colorado drivers have felt at icy intersections and wet highway on-ramps. Left uncorrected, oversteer becomes a spin. It is more common in rear-wheel-drive vehicles, but it can happen in any car during an abrupt maneuver on a slick surface.

What to do: Steer in the direction the rear of the car is moving. This is called countersteering — if the rear slides right, steer right. The goal is to align the front wheels with the direction the car is actually traveling and let the tires find grip again. Ease off the accelerator smoothly. Do not brake unless your car has ABS and you need to stop. Braking hard during a rear skid destabilizes the car further and often accelerates the spin.

Understeer: When the Front Pushes Wide

Understeer happens when the front wheels lose traction, and the car continues forward rather than turning — the steering wheel is turned, but the car goes more or less straight. Front-wheel-drive vehicles are more prone to understeer, and it commonly occurs when entering a corner too fast or when pavement conditions change mid-corner.

What to do: Ease off the accelerator gradually and reduce the steering angle slightly. Turning the wheel harder than the tires can respond makes the situation worse, not better. The front tires need a moment to stop sliding and find grip. Once traction returns, steer smoothly toward your intended path. Braking during understeer on a slick surface shifts weight to the front and can deepen the loss of grip.

Hydroplaning: When Tires Lose Contact With the Road Entirely

Hydroplaning occurs when water builds up between the tires and the road faster than the tread can channel it away. The tires are effectively floating on a film of water with no grip at all. Hydroplaning can begin at speeds as low as 35 mph on a wet surface with as little as one-tenth of an inch of water — a thin film that may be invisible to the driver.

What to do: Do not brake suddenly and do not turn the wheel. Ease off the accelerator completely and hold the steering wheel straight. The tires will gradually reconnect with the road as the vehicle slows. Only once you feel traction return should you steer or apply the brakes, and do so gently. Hard braking during full hydroplaning can send the car into a spin.

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How to Respond in the First Seconds of a Skid

Regardless of skid type, the correct response follows the same foundational sequence:

Step 1: Do not brake hard. The instinct is to stomp the brakes. On a slick surface, hard braking locks or overloads the tires, transfers weight abruptly, and can spin the car. The exception is ABS-equipped vehicles in genuine emergency stops — but even then, steering correction needs to happen simultaneously, not after.

Step 2: Ease off the accelerator. Reducing power smoothly lowers the load on the tires and gives them the best chance to regain traction. Avoid sudden throttle changes in either direction.

Step 3: Correct the steering for your skid type. Oversteer — steer into the slide. Understeer — reduce steering input and wait. Hydroplaning — hold straight. In every case, use smooth, controlled inputs. Sharp corrections create counter-skids in the opposite direction, which are harder to recover from than the original skid.

Step 4: Look where you want to go. Drivers tend to look at the hazard — the guardrail, the curb, the oncoming car — and steer toward it. Actively redirect your eyes to the path you intend to take. Steering tends to follow attention.

Step 5: Once control returns, stabilize gradually. After traction comes back, straighten the wheel smoothly. Overcorrecting after regaining grip is one of the most common causes of secondary skids and rollovers, particularly on highway ramps and mountain roads.

How to Prevent Skids Before They Start

Avoiding a skid is more reliable than correcting one. The factors most within a driver’s control:

Speed for conditions. Colorado law requires drivers to reduce speed in adverse conditions regardless of the posted limit. A car on packed snow needs far more distance to stop than the posted speed limit assumes. The question is not whether you are at the speed limit but whether you can stop in time if something unexpected happens.

Tire tread depth. Tread channels water away from the contact patch. At 2/32 inches or less, a tire has almost no ability to resist hydroplaning. At 4/32 to 6/32 inches, meaningful resistance exists. Check tread with a quarter — if the top of Washington’s head is visible when the coin is inserted tread-down in the groove, replacement is overdue. Colorado mountain weather is not a reasonable context for marginal tires.

Tire pressure. Colorado’s temperature swings cause tires to lose roughly one pound of pressure per ten degrees Fahrenheit of temperature drop. Under-inflated tires flex differently, handle less predictably, and can reduce traction in ways the driver may not feel until a skid begins. Check monthly.

Following distance. Normal following distance assumes dry pavement and predictable stops. On ice, stopping distances can extend by a factor of ten or more compared to dry conditions. Triple or quadruple your following gap on snow-packed or icy roads — the extra distance is what gives ESC and ABS time to help.

Black ice awareness. Black ice is a thin transparent glaze that looks like wet pavement. In Colorado, it forms most reliably on bridges and overpasses (surrounded by cold air on all sides), in shaded stretches that receive little sun, and at underpasses where runoff collects and refreezes overnight. If other vehicles around you are handling strangely, or if your car responds more loosely than expected, treat it as a black ice indicator and reduce speed immediately without braking hard.

When Another Driver’s Skid Caused Your Crash

Colorado law does not excuse negligent driving because the road was slippery. A driver who skids into your vehicle on an icy road does not automatically avoid fault — the legal question is whether that driver was exercising reasonable care given the specific conditions at the time.

Courts and insurance adjusters apply a reasonable driver standard: would a reasonably careful, prudent driver have done what the at-fault driver did under those same conditions? Failures that courts have consistently found to support fault include:

• Driving at or near the posted speed limit when conditions required significantly slower travel
• Maintaining the following distances is adequate only for dry pavement
• Operating on worn or underinflated tires unsuitable for winter driving
• Ignoring CDOT alerts or weather warnings
• Accelerating or braking abruptly on an icy surface

Under C.R.S. § 13-21-111, Colorado’s comparative fault rule, you can recover compensation even if you shared some responsibility for the crash — provided your percentage of fault does not exceed 50%. Your recovery is reduced by your share. The specific analysis of what each driver was doing before the skid is central to how fault is allocated.

Moreover, the categories of compensation available after a skid-related crash are the same as in any serious vehicle accident: medical expenses, lost income and earning capacity, pain and suffering, and future care costs if the injuries are long-term. What makes these cases challenging is the defense argument that the road caused the skid, not the driver. Building the case for why this specific driver’s choices were unreasonable for the conditions is where experienced representation changes the outcome.

If you were injured in a crash caused by a driver who lost control, our car accident lawyers — serving all of Colorado — offer free consultations and handle these cases on a contingency basis.

Contact us to talk through your case at no charge.

Frequently Asked Questions About Skidding

Is a driver automatically at fault if they skid into me?

Not automatically, but in most cases a driver who loses control and causes a collision bears significant or primary fault. A driver who was speeding on an icy road, following too closely, or running on marginal tires will typically be found at fault even if they skidded. 

A driver who hit a genuinely unexpected patch of black ice at an appropriate speed presents a harder case — but even that fact pattern involves a detailed look at what the driver knew about conditions and whether they adjusted accordingly.

What if I also lost control in the same weather event?

You may still have a valid claim. Colorado’s comparative fault system allows recovery even when the injured party shares some responsibility, as long as their share does not exceed 50%. The analysis looks at what both drivers were doing — speed, following distance, tire condition, awareness of road conditions — and allocates fault based on those specific facts. Shared adverse conditions do not mean shared equal fault.

Can I claim against CDOT if an untreated road caused the skid?

Potentially. Colorado government entities have a duty to maintain roads in reasonably safe condition, and if a crash was caused or worsened by a known drainage failure, an untreated ice problem, or a road defect the agency had notice of, a government liability claim may exist. Government claims in Colorado require formal written notice within 180 days of the incident — this deadline is strict, and missing it bars the claim entirely. If road conditions contributed to your crash, contact an attorney promptly.

My car’s ESC activated during the crash — does that affect the liability analysis?

ESC activation data from a vehicle’s event data recorder can show what the vehicle was doing in the seconds before impact — speed, braking inputs, steering angle, and stability system interventions. This data can be used by both sides. If ESC is activated on the at-fault driver’s vehicle and the car still skidded into you, it typically indicates the driver’s speed or inputs exceeded what even the safety system could correct, which supports a finding of fault. 

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