Step foot on any farm in Australia and you’re likely to find at least one piece of equipment controlled by a power take-off (PTO) mechanism.
And it’s probably just as likely that the farmer will have some kind of PTO horror story - a near miss, an injury or even the death of someone they know.
Nadine Chapman now lives and works in Brisbane with her family but she grew up on a horse and deer farm outside Werombi, west of Sydney.
Nadine was just eight years old when an accident with a PTO nearly claimed her life.
“Dad was down at the shed and I had walked down to see him,” she recalls.
“He was busy welding and I jumped up on the tractor to watch him weld. He didn’t know I was there but I was sitting backwards with my back against the steering wheel and my legs hanging over seat, down the back of the tractor.”
Nadine was wearing jeans at the time and recalls simply hanging her legs over the back of the seat.
She woke sometime later on the ground.
The foot of her jeans had been snagged in the PTO driving the welder on the back of the tractor.
“It ripped my jeans off and I ended up with a compound fracture of the femur,” she said. “My dad heard the eb in the tractor and he turned around saw me on the ground and obviously shut everything down and went to get help.”
Nadine’s father splinted the leg as best he could and drove her more than an hour to the nearest hospital.
“I don’t remember a lot of that and apparently I was passing out a lot because of the pain but dad says I was awake and screaming for a fair bit of it too,” she said.
Nadine spent six weeks in traction while the leg healed. Devastatingly, when the traction was removed the leg immediately broke again. A plate was then used to hold the bones in place.
Nadine has been left with a 20cm scar on her leg and a “hole” from the compound fracture.
She said the accident did change attitudes to farm safety within her family.
“Dad was quite cautious of us being in the shed from then on,” Nadine said.
“If anyone says anything about a PTO now I am the first to say they are pretty bloody dangerous.
If anyone says anything about a PTO now I am the first to say they are pretty bloody dangerous.
“Anything with high rotations are dangerous, post hole diggers and big augers.”
Fairfax Agricultural Media’s national machinery writer, Sharon O’Keeffe said while the entire machinery industry had undergone a big shift on farm safety, there were still some important steps to consider with PTOs.
Ms O’Keeffe said farm owners needed to remember that the farm was a workplace so children and visitors should not have access to machinery.
“Secondly, doing your induction when you purchase a tractor and understanding the safety features around a PTO are really important as well as not tampering with them,” she said.
“All farms should be carrying out a hazard identification and checking machinery and safety gear to make sure it is in good working order on a regular basis. That includes PTO guards.”