Based on physical arguments we propose an expression for the radiation damping force acting upon a classical, charged, point particle which is accelerated by an external force. The resulting equation of motion depends both on the velocity and the acceleration of the particle, and consequently it can be reduced to the standard Newtonian form. The equation does not suffer from the well-known problem of preacceleration and ”runaway” solutions do not appear, as is demonstrated by solving four paradigmatic examples.