@radicalrabit
It is always tragic that people fix on a course of action and die but surely a simple solution would have been if both aircraft had turned left even for a few seconds then they would have each headed away from the other?
A change in course by both aircraft may well have prevented the collision, but not necessarily so. The Ueberlingen collision itself can (in part) be taken as an example for this:
The TU154M e.g. did change its heading twice prior to the collison. Once to the left, then to the right. This can be seen on the reconstructed flightpaths in Appendix 1 of the accident report and is mentioned in the report.
Interestingly enough, the cause of the second change in the TU154M heading is not explained in the investigation report (at least I was not able to find it).