Farm trauma or farm drama? A Mixed-Methods study using immersive theater techniques to prevent traumatic farm injuries and fatalities involving farm vehicles and roadways

Abstract

Reflecting on near-miss events, or even fatal injuries, is an important means of informal safety education among farmers, farmworkers, and farm families. This swapping of stories is commonplace in the culture of agriculture (Cole, 2002; Jones, 1999; Reed, 2021; Ploeckelman, 2020). These experiences are translated as what educators often call “Aha! Moments,” or an instance of conceptual clarity. In a split- second, an individual realizes the error in their risky behavior. Unfortunately, this dawning realization is often immediately followed by an “Oh, ****!” moment that can last a lifetime—or end one. Farm vehicles are the most likely source of these traumatic farm injuries (BLS, 2022) with roadway collisions cited as a significant number of injury events. A report from NC Farm Bureau (2020) indicates over 1,000 incidents involving farm vehicles on NC roads occurred 2015-2019; almost every incident took place in only five counties surrounding major metropolitan areas. Discussions among agricultural safety and health (ASH) professionals and other agricultural stakeholders speculate that novel and innovative farm traumatic injury prevention and farm trauma response programs may help lower the number of injuries and fatalities involving farm vehicles on roadways