Imagine 20 senior citizens sticking around for two hours and becoming intensely involved in a seminar about driving. It happens, but you may be surprised by what ignites their concern.

The seminars at the Seymour Center are generally about attention skills, self-regulation, and the delicate balance between mobility, freedom and increasing risks of a crash. When we start on how to become more adept at avoiding the aggressive driver, however, things become lively. All participants have stories, sometimes emotional, about how they are harassed by aggressive drivers. Many seniors are afraid, others feel anger and rage.

Similarly astonishing, when we do seminars with school bus drivers, they too say the biggest threat to student safety is the aggressive driver. When people are leaving school, teens and parents alike are in a hurry to get out. They are more likely to be on the cell phone, and they will do stupid moves to rush around the school bus.

We call them road narcissists. You've likely seen them in traffic, speeding, slidin' and glidin' in and out, no signal, tailgating, only to gain a car or two at the next intersection. AAA (April 2009) puts real numbers on the disturbing costs from this type of driver. As many as 56 percent of fatal crashes between 2003 and 2007 were due to aggressive driving and a total of 119,475 people were killed. That is roughly 30 times the number of U.S. military deaths during the same interval!

Few want to be a road narcissist. A large majority of drivers, especially seniors, want to be safe. They take the risks of driving seriously enough to be conservative behind the wheel. Seniors drive more slowly to accommodate their decreased reaction times.

The road narcissists have yet to have a life-changing experience in a traffic crash, and they can't relate to the experience of those who have.

AlertDriver surveys with more than 4,000 drivers show that the riskier ones feel entitled to do the little stuff a lot when they drive: eat, sip a soda, chat on the cell phone, have a smoke, etc. According to our data, risky drivers are more confident in their driving ability and believe that they can handle most "innocent" interruptions without increasing crash risk.

Unfortunately, we have reinforced a culture of competitive rudeness. Taunting is the norm. Meekness is for losers. As much advantage as a competitive attitude might yield in business or sports, it loses all meaning on the highway. Competition on the road is senseless.

What to do? If there are going to be road narcissists on the road, the next best solution is self-protection. Stay out of their way. Seniors who attend our seminars learn to use police spotting techniques to avoid dangerous situations before they unfold and they love it. Next, don't engage them. The name of their game is competition. Don't stare at them, be distracted by them, or consider an obscene gesture (as tempting as that may be).

Don't taunt them by lane blocking or other passive aggressive actions. Remember, the road narcissist is always competing for attention, space, position, or some misguided sense of advantage. They will take any measure to get even if they perceive that you may be "winning" the contest. One study even showed that the aggressive driver is much more likely to have a gun in the car!

It's time for seniors to speak up about their fear and anger against road intimidation. If you are a senior and have a story about an aggressive driver, please send it. [Ken Mills profiler@intrex.net ]