Well, I suppose it could have been worse...you could have taken my head off.
It really isn't that implausible that the author may have intended to write "careening" rather than "careering" given that he mis-typed "table leg".
I suspect the verb "career" is used more commonly in th U.K. than it is here in NA. Obviously, mg would know more about this than I would.
Are you an expert on BrE? I was under the impression that you lived in the States.