Brake checking is illegal in Missouri. The state has no statute that names the behavior, but deliberately slamming your brakes to scare or punish another driver violates Missouri’s careless and imprudent driving law, which requires every motorist to exercise the “highest degree of care.”1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 304.012 – Motorists to Exercise Highest Degree of Care A first offense with no collision is a Class B misdemeanor carrying up to six months in jail. If someone gets hurt, the charge can climb to a Class D felony with up to seven years in prison. And in a rear-end crash caused by a brake check, fault can shift away from the trailing driver and onto the person who hit the brakes.
The Law Brake Checking Violates
Missouri Revised Statutes Section 304.012 requires every driver to operate “in a careful and prudent manner” and to “exercise the highest degree of care.”1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 304.012 – Motorists to Exercise Highest Degree of Care That standard is stricter than what many other states impose, and it gives prosecutors room to argue that a deliberate, aggressive brake check breaks the law even when no crash occurs.
Intent is the dividing line. Tapping the brakes because a deer ran into the road is not a crime. Hammering the pedal after a middle-finger exchange on I-70 is. Courts and officers look at the whole picture: dashcam footage, witnesses, traffic conditions, speed, and whether the driver had any legitimate reason to brake. Proving intent is where the evidence does the real work.
Criminal Penalties
The criminal exposure depends on whether a collision happened and whether anyone was injured.
No Crash: Class B Misdemeanor
A brake check that doesn’t cause a collision is a Class B misdemeanor under Section 304.012, punishable by up to six months in jail plus fines at the court’s discretion.1Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 304.012 – Motorists to Exercise Highest Degree of Care2Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 558.011 – Authorized Terms of Imprisonment
Crash With No Injury: Class A Misdemeanor
If the brake check causes an accident, the charge rises to a Class A misdemeanor with up to one year in jail.
Crash With Injury: Class D Felony
Once another person is physically injured, prosecutors can charge second-degree assault under Section 565.052, which covers operating a motor vehicle with criminal negligence and causing physical injury. The offense is a Class D felony, carrying up to seven years in prison.3Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 565.052 – Assault Second Degree Penalty2Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 558.011 – Authorized Terms of Imprisonment Courts have discretion to impose a special term of up to one year in county jail for Class D felonies or to commit the defendant to the Department of Corrections for longer sentences. That is the charge that turns a moment of road rage into a permanent felony record.
Points and License Suspension
A conviction for careless and imprudent driving under state law adds four points to your Missouri driving record. Under a municipal ordinance, the same conviction carries two points.4Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 302.302 – Point System Points accumulate across all your traffic violations, and the thresholds trip faster than most drivers expect:
- 8 points in 18 months: license suspended. First suspension is 30 days, second is 60 days, third or later is 90 days.
- 12 points in 12 months, 18 points in 24 months, or 24 points in 36 months: license revoked for one year.
Those thresholds come from the Missouri Department of Revenue’s driver guide.5Missouri Department of Revenue. Driver Guide Chapter 11 A single four-point conviction puts you halfway to a suspension if you already have a couple of speeding tickets on your record. Insurers pull driving records too, and point accumulation routinely drives up premiums.
Who Pays for a Rear-End Crash Caused by a Brake Check
This is where brake checking gets counterintuitive. Missouri’s rear-end collision doctrine normally presumes the trailing driver was negligent, so in an ordinary rear-end crash the person who hit from behind has to overcome that presumption. Brake checking can flip it.
When the lead driver slammed the brakes deliberately with no legitimate reason, the trailing driver can argue there was no reasonable opportunity to stop. Dashcam footage, witness testimony, and the absence of skid marks from the lead vehicle’s tires all help show the stop was intentional. If the argument lands, the brake checker bears primary fault.
The trailing driver is not automatically off the hook. Section 304.017 requires drivers to keep a “reasonably safe and prudent” distance behind the vehicle ahead, and violating it is a Class C misdemeanor.6Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Code 304 – Section 304.017 Distance at Which Vehicle Must Follow Penalty Both drivers often share blame: the brake checker for the reckless stop, the tailgater for following too closely to react.
Comparative Fault
Missouri follows a pure comparative fault system. A plaintiff’s recovery is reduced by their share of fault but is never completely barred.7Justia Law. Gustafson v Benda 1983 Supreme Court of Missouri Decisions If a jury finds the brake checker 80% at fault and the trailing driver 20% at fault, a $100,000 award to the trailing driver becomes $80,000. Evidence of what actually happened on the road, especially video, controls that allocation.
Punitive Damages
Missouri law allows punitive damages when the defendant acted with “deliberate and flagrant disregard for the safety of others,” proven by clear and convincing evidence.8Missouri Revisor of Statutes. Missouri Revised Statutes 510.261 – Punitive Damages Brake checking is the kind of intentional, aggressive conduct that can meet the standard. A driver who admits to slamming the brakes out of anger, or whose dashcam shows a pattern of it, hands the plaintiff strong ammunition for punitive damages on top of medical bills, lost wages, and vehicle repair.
Insurance
Insurers respond hard to brake-checking crashes. An at-fault driver can expect a steep premium increase, and the carrier may decline to renew. If the behavior is extreme enough to be treated as intentional rather than negligent, some policies will not cover the damages at all, leaving the brake checker personally on the hook for the full judgment.
If Someone Brake Checks You
The natural reaction is anger, and anger is the wrong move. The priority is distance. Slow down gradually, change lanes when it’s safe, and let the aggressive driver pull away. Don’t tailgate, flash your lights, or lean on the horn. Each of those escalates the situation and can leave you partly liable if a crash follows.
If a collision happens, pull over safely and call 911. Write down the other driver’s plate, vehicle description, and anything you noticed about their behavior before the stop. Tell the responding officer if you have a dashcam. If you don’t, look at the vehicles around you and ask whether anyone caught it on video or will give a witness statement. Dashcam footage is the single most powerful piece of evidence in these cases, because without it the dispute often collapses into one driver’s word against the other’s, with the presumption running against the trailing driver.
Even without a crash, aggressive driving can be reported. Missouri has no dedicated aggressive driving hotline, but calling the local police non-emergency line, or dialing *55 to reach the Missouri State Highway Patrol, creates a record. Repeated reports against the same driver can support enforcement later.