Never commit these acts of road rage while driving, no matter how angry you are

As the saying goes, "if you aren't angry when you are driving, chances are that you are the one making other drivers angry".

It is pretty much the general consensus that many people are angry while driving, and it boils down to many reasons — it could be someone who cut you off without signalling, or it could be due to a road hogger holding up the entire traffic flow.

Indeed, there are countless reasons to get agitated while driving, but no matter how angry you are, you need to keep your anger in check before you get yourself into trouble with the law (while there isn't a specific law for road rage, you can still be charged with reckless or dangerous driving), or endanger other drivers on the road.

Here's a list of things you should never do while on the road.

Brake checking

If you are wondering what it is, a 'brake check' refers to a sudden, harsh brake in order to agitate the driver behind you to show your displeasure.

Which begs the question — what does brake checking ever achieve? In the best case scenario, you manage to irritate the other car's driver by making him slam on the brakes.

But if he fails to brake in time, he'll end up crashing into you, damaging your car, which really isn't doing yourself any good (imagine trying to justify your actions to the insurer)!

Things can turn out to be even worse, you might even cause a chain collision on the expressway, implicating other innocent road users and putting everyone's life in danger.

Swerve towards/ into another car

Swerving into another car is yet another act of aggression on the roads that can cause trouble, and not just for the intended recipient of your fury.

It doesn't even matter if your intention is really to manoeuvre the other party off the road, or simply to scare him, he'll likely instinctively attempt to swerve out of harm's way.

And such sudden movements can be extremely dangerous, especially if there are bikes in the vicinity that might not be able to react in time.

And let's face it, I doubt you'll really want to ram the other car off the road causing damages to both parties property and probably getting charged for the reckless act.

Cutting off another car aggressively

While the intention is to show your displeasure, cutting another car off aggressively will only put your own car at risk of damages.

Much like brake checking, such an action will more likely put you at a disadvantage if there were to be an impact.

When cutting off another car aggressively, you'll likely be changing lanes abruptly and dangerously, which not only puts other road users at risk, but also leave you open to dangerous or reckless driving charges as well.

With all odds stacked against you, it really don't make much sense to be doing such things on the road.

Tailgating to show your displeasure

You might think that you are turning up the pressure on the driver in front of you by following closely behind his car. However, in reality you are only putting yourself in a precarious position.

While tailgating, you will be putting more undue stress on yourself than the other driver.

By following closely, your vision of the road in front will be obscured by the hulking chunk of metal right in front of you, and should the other driver make any sudden movements to avoid an obstacle, you might not be able to react in time.

Furthermore, if the driver really is a clueless one, he might not even look at his rear view mirror often enough to realise what you are doing.

And if you get a plucky driver who chooses to fight back, he can simply give the brakes a quick jab and throw you into frenzy, or into the back of his car.

Stopping in the middle of the road to confront someone

Stopping in the middle of the road for no good reason is one of the worst thing you can do while driving.

Clearly, you will cause an obstruction to the traffic flow, but if you were to get out of the car to confront another driver, you could be knocked down by other road users as well.

Moreover, if you were to confront another driver while in the midst of anger, you could make the mistake of laying hands on the other party.

The last thing you want is to be thrown into the jail for voluntarily causing hurt due to a poor decision made during the heat of the moment.

So you should just take a moment to calm yourself down before doing anything that you will regret.

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This article was first published in sgCarMart.