A driving force for safety:
Professor directs campaign to prevent tractor rollovers

Chike Anyaegbunam, University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Telecommunications assistant professor, has been named the national project director for the National Agricultural Tractor Safety campaign.

This 24-month national research project is the first phase in the design of a nationwide effort to promote farm tractor safety and the use of rollover protective structures (ROPS) and seat belts on farm tractors. This project is funded by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, under the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

This research project will reach out to grassroots farmers and farm community leaders in Kentucky and eight other geographically diverse states. The project will use community-based participatory research as a means of involving farm community members in the development and evaluation of a tractor safety social marketing campaign.

“Through this program, we seek to involve farmers in the development of a national campaign to promote tractor safety in the United States,” said Anyaegbunam.
The UK Southeast Center for Agricultural Health and Injury Prevention was selected as the coordinating center for the 36 focus groups that will be used in the research phase. UK was chosen as the lead institution for this project based on the successful work it already completed under the ROPS 1 and ROPS 2 projects that developed, field tested and evaluated several messages and strategies for promoting roll over protective structures for farm tractors.

Anyaegbunam, a native of Nigeria, has been involved with numerous research projects. He received his bachelor of arts in journalism and mass communication and a minor in international relations from the University of Nigeria in 1975. He then attended the University of Iowa, where he received his master’s and doctoral degrees. He settled at the University of Kentucky after extensive international work in communications, serving as a diplomat in Liberia and as a Country Information and Communication Officer in Nigeria. He has also worked with several agencies of the United Nations including UNICEF, USAID, and FAO; he is currently a communications consultant for World Bank.

“I am interested in rural populations — that is why I work in Appalachia,” said Anyaegbunam. Although his work is international in scope, his interests lie right here in Kentucky. Because of this, he is naturally interested in improving tractor safety through the National Tractor Safety campaign.

— Sarah Billings