diff --git a/index.js b/index.js
index 30676c7..1efd613 100644
--- a/index.js
+++ b/index.js
@@ -343,7 +343,22 @@ function upperBound(value, arr) {
 function sort(values, boxes, indices, left, right, nodeSize) {
     if (Math.floor(left / nodeSize) >= Math.floor(right / nodeSize)) return;
 
-    const pivot = values[(left + right) >> 1];
+    // apply median of three method
+    const start = values[left];
+    const mid = values[(left + right) >> 1];
+    const end = values[right];
+
+    let pivot = end;
+
+    const x = Math.max(start, mid);
+    if (end > x) {
+        pivot = x;
+    } else if (x === start) {
+        pivot = Math.max(mid, end);
+    } else if (x === mid) {
+        pivot = Math.max(start, end);
+    }
+
     let i = left - 1;
     let j = right + 1;
 
diff --git a/test.js b/test.js
index 1465bec..fc3dca0 100644
--- a/test.js
+++ b/test.js
@@ -222,4 +222,32 @@ test('reconstructs an index from SharedArrayBuffer', () => {
     assert.deepEqual(index, index2);
 });
 
+test('quicksort should work with an inbalanced dataset', () => {
+    const n = 15000;
+    const index = new Flatbush(2 * n);
+
+    function linspace(start, stop, num, endpoint = true) {
+        const div = endpoint ? (num - 1) : num;
+        const step = (stop - start) / div;
+        return Array.from({length: num}, (_, i) => start + step * i);
+    }
+
+    const items = linspace(0, 1000, n);
+    const items2 = linspace(0, 1000, n);
+
+    for (const p of items) {
+        index.add(p, 0, p, 0);
+    }
+
+    for (const p of items2) {
+        index.add(p, 0, p, 0);
+    }
+
+    index.finish();
+
+    assert.doesNotThrow(() => {
+        index.search(-100, -1, 15000, 1);
+    });
+});
+
 function compare(a, b) { return a - b; }