“... Her truck spun around and wound up on the median, with the driver’s door facing the eastbound traffic lanes.”
She wanted to exit her truck onto the median, and not out into traffic. Makes sense to me.
Just because she was hit on the passenger side doesn’t mean the passenger door area was damaged.
The image I have is that when her truck came to rest on the median, it was oriented N/S, with the doors oriented E/W. It wouldn't matter which she door she exited, she would still be on the median, relatively safe to either E/B or W/B traffic. In either case, it would be likely that traffic in either direction would be slowed, depending on the location of the damage car, and the number of people who slowed to get a look at the damaged vehicles.
The article said she was struggling to open the passenger door. This suggests that it was damaged. If so, why not just exit the drivers door?