How to stay safe in a road rage situation

HOUSTON (FOX 26) - Drive long enough and it will probably happen to you. I'm talking about that jerk that either sets you off or loses his cool at  you. It happens no matter who you are.

“Kind of slammed on the brakes in front of me and I was able to maneuver and get around him. It took everything in me not to flip him the bird,” said driver Adrian Peterson.

“I try to stay relaxed yeah because they might be having a bad day,” offered another driver, Rachel Flam.

Houston police say doing nothing and staying calm is a good idea. A large number of cars on the Texas roads have guns in them, legally. If nobody is hurt, just let it go

“Never pursue to get a plate. A lot of accidents can occur. They may think you are coming after them and that's when things can escalate and things can get worse,”  said Officer Aaron Richberg.

Case in point, Sunday night there was a fender bender in a Walmart parking lot in Stafford. The driver pursued the car that hit him. He caught up with it in a nearby parking lot.  Two men in the car he pursued got out and opened fire, killing the driver's wife.

It's hard to find hard statistics about the number of road rage incidents, because many of them end peacefully.

Even the calmest drivers can end up on the flip side with someone is raging at you and you might not even know why. What do you do?

“The best thing to do is wave and say you are sorry,” said handgun license instructor John Boyert

Boyert teaches students the best thing to do is try to de-escalate the situation.

“We teach students to avoid eye contact. Don't honk  the horn. Don't do the universal one-finger salute. All those type of things you want to avoid, because you don't know who the other person in that car is. Are they a gang banger? Are they mentally unstable? You have no idea who that person is,” Boyert said.

If that doesn't work, head to a place there are a lot of people. Better yet head to a place where there are likely to be police, like a hospital. Remember,  your goal is to get you and your loved ones home safely. No matter who you are.

“Let them go around you. Let them win. Life is too short.” said Adrian Peterson. By the way, that is THE Adrian Peterson, the NFL running back who is currently a free agent.