I have a friend who has done this a number of times. He’s a super sharp guy, but absentminded, so he’s driven away without remembering to replace the gas nozzle at the gas station. In fact, it’s a fairly common practice and happens at your average gas station about once a month.

Don’t worry, if you drive away from the gas station with the gas nozzle your car isn’t going to blow up and you’re not going to have a fireball trailing you down the interstate. The hose attached to the nozzle is designed to break in two with a certain amount of force–so you’ll get a few feet before it breaks.

When you break a business’s property, how they deal with you may vary. Some might get your insurance information and some might let you slide. It depends on the gas station’s policy.

According to Paul Fiore, executive vice president of the service station association Service Station Dealers of America and Allied Trades, how the situation is handled often depends on the gas station. “The policies in place will be as varied as the owners’ and managers’ personalities,” he said to The New York Times. “Each company will have their own approach to this delicate situation. Is it a good customer? Did the customer get an ‘attitude’ right away as if it was the gas station’s fault? Every little thing is a factor in deciding how an owner or manager handles a customer that has damaged store property, and I would imagine it is no different across the retailing spectrum.”

Most car insurance companies cover the damage through liability coverage. “A person who drives off from a gas pump with the hose still attached to the vehicle is generally going to liable for the damages caused by their negligence,” Kip Diggs, a spokesman for State Farm Insurance, said to The New York Times. “The damage to the pump would be covered under the liability portion of the driver’s auto policy. We would determine the damages through the normal claims process.”

Replacing the nozzle could cost around $350 or more, depending on how much damage you did to the pump or if you damaged the underground gas tank. If you damage the gas tank, it could cause real damage to the gas station resulting in a loss of revenue. It’s the cost of thinking of everything but pumping gas when you’re at the gas station.

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Even the most laid back drivers have experienced occasional road rage. It happens to the best of us.

A recent study from the travel site Expedia has pinpointed some road rage inducing behaviors. The report was released in conjunction with Memorial Day, one of the biggest driving travel days of the year.

“As the unofficial start of summer, Memorial Day sees a huge spike in the number of drivers on the road,” said Expedia General Manager John Morrey. “The rule, as with airplanes and hotels, is that shared spaces demand decorum and attentiveness.”

The study, reported on CNBC, found that the biggest causes of road rage included when other drivers were texting while driving–69 percent of drivers admitted it caused undue anger. Another 60 percent of drivers had a real problem when other drivers tailgated them. Drivers also complained about multitaskers, those that hogged the left lane, and drivers who failed to signal before they suddenly changed lanes. The 2014 Road Rage Report surveyed 1,001 adult American drivers with a valid driver’s license.

Road raging is a big problem because people are more likely to incite conflict when they’re protected by the safe haven of their vehicle–they remain anonymous. While they likely wouldn’t get into a verbal argument at the grocery store, the freeway is a different story entirely. Overcrowding on the highways is also to blame.

“You know those studies of overcrowding in rats?” asks Barry Markell, PhD, a psychotherapist in Park Ridge, Ill., who has treated many perpetrators and victims of road rage, reported on WebMD. “Well, rats are usually OK until there is one rat too many in an enclosed space and then they all turn on each other. There are far more people on the road than ever before. Crowding causes aggression.”

If you’re vulnerable to losing your temper on the road, take steps to avoid road rage.

• Get enough sleep.
• Leave with enough time to get to your destination without driving aggressively.
• Play soothing music.
• Breathe deeply.

Remember, this behavior can cost you in more ways than one. “People don’t think about that,” Markell says. “This can have a high price tag even if no one is hurt or killed — tickets, lawyers, court costs, damage to vehicles, insurance rates.”

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