What happens when you lose control of your car while reversing?

your car is a very heavy object and as soon as it starts to move it builds up kinetic energy in the form of momentum. The faster you go the more energy an object has. Now when you are going one way and you stop suddenly and reverse jest right the momentum gets transferred the other direction and it seems like the car suddenly takes off. This is exactly how to get your car unstuck from mud or ice and snow. Low speed nice and easy you reverse the momentum. The bigger and heavier something is the more energy it has the faster you go.

In a car accident a lot of times this energy can get transferred to the other vehicle which ends up causing damage in the blink of an eye. The best way to control what you experienced is with the brake pedal. Keep your foot on the brake firmly at all times when changing from reverse to drive or drive to reverse. that way the 4 brakes have the energy in motion in check so it cannot move until you let off the brake. Also if you are on a parking lot that is slanted one way or the other like on a hill you can lose control by accident if you are backing up hill not realizing it and go into drive and the car can take off because of gravity.

So several factors are in play when this happens the key is to always step on the brake pedal for safety and when you go from reverse to drive or drive to reverse wait until the car drops into gear before stepping on the gas.

did you mistake the acceleration for reverse? I did that before. I thought I had switched out of reverse but I was still in, then hit the gas then went flying in reverse lol. no one was behind me, but it still freaks you out.