Immersive Escape Room Gamification: Transportation Hazmat Incident (iERG)

Abstract The transportation industry faces significant risk to health, safety and property during the shipping, handling, storage, and disposal of hazardous materials (hazmat). The United States transports approximately one million shipments of hazardous materials daily, accounting for about 12% of the country's total freight tonnage (U.S. Department of Transportation, 2022). If not handled properly, exposure to hazardous materials can cause harm to the human health and the environment, resulting in respiratory issues, skin irritation, and even death. Strict protocols, adequate training, and proper safety gear are essential for minimizing risk when working with and around hazardous materials. Traditional training methods often fail to engage workers or adequately prepare them for real-world scenarios. Additionally, Hispanic workers are disproportionately impacted from occupational exposure to chemicals resulting in injuries and fatalities. To address this critical need to improve workplace safety with innovative methods, we propose the development of: Interactive Escape Room Gamification: Transportation Incident (iERG), an awareness level training program utilizing an immersive educational escape room formatted in both English and Spanish, bridging the language barrier and ensuring that more workers have access to vital safety information and training. iERG is a virtual escape room, scenario-based experience in which learners are challenged to locate clues, solve puzzles, and accomplish tasks while racing against the clock to safely escape a hazmat situation. This unique approach combines the thrill of an escape room with rigorous hazmat training, creating an engaging and effective learning environment. This simulated escape room transforms a complex hazmat situation into a game-based learning training program. Game-based learning improves the quality of the educational process through motivational interaction (Cordova & Lepper, 1996) with educational escape rooms in particular showing positive learner outcomes, perceptions, and engagement Eukel & Morrell, 2021). iERG will be designed to simulate a realistic awareness-level hazmat situation, requiring users to apply their knowledge and skills to solve puzzles, make decisions, and successfully "escape" the hazmat scenario. The interactive nature of the escape room enhances retention and understanding of hazmat protocols, while also fostering teamwork and communication skills among participants. The prototype will include a detailed scenario of a hazmat incident in both English and Spanish, tailored to the specific needs of transportation and warehouse workers. We will collaborate with the Freight Division of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters (IBT), transportation experts and safety professionals to ensure the training is both accurate and thoughtfully designed to meet educational objectives and enhance the overall safety and preparedness of transportation workers when faced with a hazmat situation.