Understeer

This is when the front wheels of a car lose traction while driving around a bend. This usually happens to front-wheel drive vehicles when cornering too fast.

Red line - Intended path around the bend
Dotted red line - No skid control
Blue line - Skid control path

This is one of the most common causes of serious accidents as people naturally try to brake hard rather than trying to control the skid.

Note: With modern day vehicles being fitted with ABS, the problem of instinctive hard braking is not such a problem as the front wheels will always rotate thereby giving steering control.

To regain control you need to do three things as soon as you recognise that you are skidding - immediately:

• Take your foot off the accelerator. This removes the power to the front wheels.
• Clutch in. This enables the front wheels to rotate at the same speed that the car is travelling and will provide some directional control.
• Steer away from the direction of the skid (see the note below).

Note: For those people that have had skid-control training elsewhere, you may have been taught to initially steer into the direction of skid in order to gain directional control. However, doing this moves the car nearer to the edge of the road and may increase the likeleyhood that the car will go off the road. If you clutch-in then this immediately gives directional control.

When steering, you will probably find you are quickly on full steering-lock, in which case the wheels are probably at too great an angle with the road and are skidding instead of providing steering control. To correct this try rocking the steering wheel back and fore so that the wheels find sufficient grip to regain directional control.