Made it back home...

I had an Airstream do that to me a few years ago, and I lost it. It was not pretty. Glad you came through okay. That is uno scarey experience. Sorry to hear about your sis.

The proper way to get a fishtailing trailer under control is to apply its brakes. Modern tongue mounted automatic brake controllers deny the driver that option. Any inertial system that requires the tow vehicle's brakes to be applied first is suicide in the making. A jackknife is almost guaranteed. And late model manual controllers use slide bars instead of levers. When the trailer is jerking the tow vehicle around, it is virtually impossible for the driver to grasp the slide bar. Trailer towing has become much more dangerous with modern controller innovations.

Anti-sway bars don't help if the trailer jumps the hitch. Brakes are the only way to stop it in that case. And you have about three swings to get it before control is lost. It happened to me with a full-anti sway, load distributing Reese. The anti-sway bar was ripped apart, and one of the chained bars was broken. I just could not get my hand on that slide bar. The tow vehicle ended up over a guard rail with both front wheels folded under and against a cutbank just short of plunging into a deep canyon; the trailer on its side on the highway with its rear caught on the guard rail.

Something like this must have happened a while back when I was on the highway, someone had one of those boats - you know the sail boats with the long thingy under the boat? - the whole thing tipped over onto the concrete divider - man that must be frustrating & scary

glad to hear you got out of that one pho glad your all safe and home again i have the sway bars on my trailor and so far so good alittle sway when a tractortrailor gos flyin by but not that bad maybe one and a half and im smooth again but i gotta tell ya's im slowin my roll no more 70 haha my top will be 60 and thats just to keep up with traffic when i was commin here i was runnin 70 and people in cars and trucks where passin me like i was doin 40 ---- i realy dont think a few extra hrs is worth what could happen so im gonna try and enjoy the ride

This being the south, there are some interesting trailor/tow vehicle rigs going by. One day, going into our shop on Interstate 75, now I know no one on this forum is this stupid, a Nissan Pathfinder was towing a backhoe trailor.
My wife was at the wheel, we were in the right lane, this good ole boy was in the left. We heard the music first, then BANG! I did not see it, but what I see, the trailor was going from lane to lane, faster, and faster. The good ole boy mashed the accelerator pedal, going faster and faster, the trailor was weaving faster and faster.
I could now see the commotion. His vehicle was going up on the left side wheels, right side wheels, left side wheels, right side wheels, going faster and faster. The left side trailor wheels went off the tarmac and the trailor shot into the median, then came back. Now the Pathfinder was really going back and forth. We had been doing the limit, and he was speeding up. As the Pathfinder just started passing us, the backend of the trailor just missed us. My wife had been slowing down and staying in control. She was doing what I had trained her to do and doing it dead on the money.
The Pathfinder shot into the median, the trailor went into the lane behind us and to the right, in the breakdown land. The Pathfinder turned directly right, the trailor shot to the left, into the median. A miracle, the trailor just missed us, the Pathfinder turned directly 90* to the Interstate, and shot directly in front of us. The trailor was catching up, and just missed our hood in front by inches!
As he passed directly in front, having a long haul trucker for years, I noticed his hitch. It was a ball hitch! The trailor was a pintle hitch! He was dressed like an hollywood gang banger, and the rap music was so loud the squealing of tires was almost unnoticable. As the trailor passed the front of our car, we were in almost full lock at this time, the trailor again started steering the Pathfinder.
We live in Floriduh, when that happened, we lived in Punta Gorda, and our shop was in Ft. Myers. Trees are a scarce commodity down there. The trailor turned the Pathfinder 360* and the Pathfinder hit the only tree within miles! The Pathfinder came to a massive direct halt. The trailor continued the circle, tearing off the back of the vehicle and the side of the trailor hit the drivers door, and removed the top of the vehicle at the door handle.
There were quite a few vehicles behind us while this was happening. We had stopped and I was walking up to the wreck. The driver was now an anatomical cross section. The other drivers were walking up to my wife and congratulating her on her driving. She was beside herself.
I got back into our shop. Needless to say, we had a less than productive day.
Towing is a real challenge. That driver was just plain stupid, and the fact no one else was killed was a pure miracle.
Most trailor accidents here are from the part time drivers. Once a year, they hook up and go. Their trailor has sat for months, sometimes they even forget they are towing something and pass an auto and pull back just as their tow vehicle has passed the rear end of the tow vehicle.
What you went through can really shake up someone. If you had not been aware you had a trailor, and was just groovy cruising, things would have been really different.
A lot of people here forget the trailor undercuts the tow vehicle and they hit curbs and blow tires. Usually it is just a pinch of a sidewall and when on the Interstate, they have catastrophic blow outs.
The industry has made it so anyone can hook up and tow the trailor off the lot. When Sandsman was here, when he left he very carefully balanced the trailor. I am sure when on the road He could feel a little off, but nothing like the retirees who do not even know balance is an issue. Sands was real careful, he made the trip.
We are building our Suburban for heavy towing. Upped the hp to right now, 635, polyied the entire suspension and frame to body, massive anti-sway bars. The transmission has been rebuilt for heavy tow. We added manual downshifting. We may never tow with it, but it is ready.
Sands plans on doing 60 on the Interstate. That is a good idea. The savings in tires, really compensates the extra time spent driving. As speed increases, the center of gravity raises. This emphasizes any weakness in the driving components. A slightly worn ball joint, tie rod ends, slightly out of line rear spring. This tracks back to the trailor, raising its center of gravity, either putting more or less weight on the hitch. This tracks back to the steering, and feeds back to the hitch.
Whew. Glad you made it. When I was a trucker, I had that happen. We are always ready. It must have scared the daylights out of you. You did not panic. The journey continued.
Care must be taken hauling trailors, even then, there is the random factor.
Ya made it.