Unguarded PTO shafts remain a leading cause of farm entanglement injuries

Farm safety specialists are renewing calls for producers to check their power take-off shafts after a string of entanglement injuries this summer. A spinning PTO shaft can wrap clothing, hair or a bootlace in a fraction of a second, and most victims never see it coming.

The fix is usually inexpensive. Most incidents involve a shield that was cracked, missing or removed to make hooking up an implement easier and was simply never put back on. Replacement shields for common implements typically cost far less than a single trip to the emergency room.

Specialists recommend a quick walkaround before each season: confirm the master shield on the tractor is in place, make sure the implement shaft guard spins freely and is not cracked, and verify the safety chains are attached to keep the guard from rotating.

Above all, they say, never step over a running shaft. Shutting the tractor off to cross to the other side takes seconds and removes the risk entirely.