Quote Originally Posted by MetroMPG View Post
I saw the stories in my email alerts yesterday.

Who knows what the circumstances were and whether it was potentially avoidable, but the driving school I taught for (years ago) used to teach & practice (simulated) head-on collision avoidance maneuvers in 2-lane highway situations just like this.

Imminent collision coming at you in your lane?

1) if you have time, signal right (communicate so you don't BOTH end up heading the same direction to avoid the crash)

2) maintain speed

3) drop the right tires onto the shoulder and as smoothly as possible steer the left tires over to run near the edge of the asphalt

4) when clear, while holding speed, steer the right tires gently back onto the asphalt

5) find somewhere safe to stop to change your shorts

In the above scenario, there's enough room for 3 normal size cars to pass all at once on a typical 2 lane highway.

The rationale for maintaining speed through the maneuver was to avoid putting the driver into a situation where they were (A) rapidly changing speed (B) while steering, while also (C) going off a high-traction surface (asphalt) onto a low-traction surface (gravel). That's a recipe for loss of control/rollover for a typical driver, never mind a novice one.
I was taught that you should do pretty much anything you can to avoid a head-on, as these are the worst kind of accidents you can be in. The logic being, any way you crack up your car avoiding the head-on will be less lethal than the head-on.