No merchant is going to do that turn unless it comes to a dead stop.
The actual collision was apparently at position 1, while the ship was on autopilot. The immediate maneuvers after that are the autopilot reacting to the collision and then getting back on it’s assigned course. The u-turn is when the crew went back to see what they had hit.
The Fitz apparently never detected the container ship at all until the collision, which is mind-boggling.