A lot of speculation about what jackknife meant in context. Maybe just a Mexican not quite sure about English.
Non-car guys aren’t gonna know oversteer from squat.
Maybe because it looks as if he hit a fire hydrant just before the tree - note the gusher. That would torque the car and cause prior damage before the slam into the tree.
The issue isn’t so much an ESL guy misusing a term, it’s the way the writer ran with it while attempting to slam MB. I’m not a Merc guy, but trying to blame a 4:15AM fatal wreck on poor design and build quality is patently absurd.