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the corrections just outlined while simultaneously taking your foot off of the gas, and NOT USING THE BRAKE is the safest route to regain control of your vehicle. Using the brakes, while necessary at times, should always be the last thing that is added to the corrective measure list. Why? Think about skidding itself for a moment. Loss of or inadequate traction is the key here. If your tires cannot maintain contact with the ground adequately to allow for control of the vehicle while they're still turning, why would they be able to when the tires suddenly stop turning because you slam on the brakes? They won't. All that weight moving forward with velocity (momentum) hasn't had a chance to dissipate yet. What makes it dissipate? Your tires turning slower (a counteracting force) from loss of acceleration or from the brakes being applied or from going up a hill without any further acceleration from gas being applied etc. But if you apply the brakes when your tires are not making adequate contact with the road because of snow, ice, or water, then you will continue moving forward until enough counteracting force dissipates all of that momentum. And a skid is a counteracting force that will help to dissipate that momentum, but it is not a safe mechanism for doing so. Obviously, if you do go into a skid, then you have no real control over where your car goes.

So, you're driving along a road that has a light layer of snow on the ground. You're feeling pretty confident about your drive because there is virtually no one else on the road, and you feel you're driving slow enough. You haven't had any problem whatsoever since leaving your house for work five miles ago. You begin going down a mild to moderate grade that fairly quickly goes into a long curve heading off to the left. Suddenly, you feel the rear end of your car sliding out (fish-tailing) to the right. What do you need to do to maintain control of your car and continue heading safely in the right direction? You take your foot off of the gas while simultaneously steering the car to the right just enough to stop the rear end from fish-tailing anymore. If you do this adequately, you will very quickly feel the rear end become properly aligned with the front end of your car, and you will feel the sliding stop and know that you've regained control of your vehicle. Once this happens, it's usually enough to motivate you to drive much slower than you were previously, which is always the safest bet during hazardous driving

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