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Skids sneak up on you. You could be driving along, everything going smoothly, but when you step on the brake pedal, you suddenly discover you have no traction. Don't make a bad situation worse. Learn how to control your car in a skid. Better yet, learn how to avoid a skid in the first place.

Not skidding in the first place

The trick here is to make sure that you have control of your car during normal driving. Skids happen only when you think you have control, but you really don't. Can you feel your tires grip the road surface? Does your car respond quickly to slight changes of speed, such as taking your foot off the gas pedal? If not, you've got a skid waiting to happen.

1. Slow down! The faster you go, the more likely it is that you don't have firm contact with the road anymore, though you won't notice it unless something changes, like trying to negotiate a bend in the road. If the surface is slick, slow down even more.

2. Apply gas gradually, brake gradually. Your car and your gas costs will also thank you. Surprises can sneak up on us, but in most normal driving you should be able to plan your starts and stops. If you are coming up to a light that has been green for a long time, it's probably about to turn yellow and it won't catch you off guard if you are already prepared to stop.

If you do intend to stop suddenly, take a glance in your rear-view mirror first. The driver behind you may not be as in control of his vehicle as you are, or maybe it's a truck coming up behind you, which cannot stop as quickly as a small car. The last thing you want is to be rear-ended into a busy intersection. In this case, better just to go through that yellow light.

Preempting a skid

If you can feel your tires slipping on the road, you are already out of control, but you are not in a skid. Not yet.

One rule and one rule only in this case. Take your foot off the gas, and let the car slow down on its own until the tires regain their grip. Whatever you do, don't slam on the brakes! This will send you into a skid for sure. If you absolutely must slow down faster than the car can do on its own, apply the brakes very lightly, releasing them at once if you don't feel the car respond. Remember, if the tires don't grip the road, the brakes are not going to do you much good anyway.

Controlling a skid

Skids are nothing but inertia in action, when all or part of the car is determined to keep going on the path you originally laid out for it. This is why skids always happen when you introduce a change,

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