Unguarded agricultural power take-off (PTO) drivelines and related components, including secondary drivelines powered by the PTO, have been historically recognized as serious farm-related hazards that can cause severe, permanently disabling injuries and death when entanglement occurs. The lack of longitudinal and causative data on these incidents has been a barrier for developing relevant and effective intervention strategies. A study was conducted at Purdue University to design, develop, and test a system to document, code, store, and analyze a large amount of agriculture driveline-related injury and fatality data to allow for identification of causative factors and trends that could be used in developing engineering, educational, and regulatory solutions. This was accomplished by first developing a standardized injury reporting form and coding system and then developing an electronic database, using Microsoft(R) Access 2002,(R) which could be used to document, store, query, and analyze agricultural driveline-related incident data. Incidents resulting in injury or fatality identified between 1970 and 2003 were documented and the available data coded and entered into the database using a systematic approach. A pilot-test of the usability of the database was conducted on data collected from 92 incidents involving children and adolescents. Using the validated data management system, an analysis was conducted on data collected from 674 cases entered into the database. Findings from the analysis of the data included the following: the frequency of documented agricultural driveline-related incidents increased from the 1970s to the 1980s, but then decreased through the 1990s and into the 2000s; the 11 to 15-year-old age group had the highest frequency of cases; incidents occurred more often in the fall season; and augers, elevators, or conveyors were the type of implements most frequently involved. Recommendations were made to reduce the risk of agriculture driveline injuries and for future research.

Agricultural driveline-related incidents have been identified as an important cause of farm-related injury resulting in death and permanently disabling conditions to children and adolescents. A database of driveline-related injuries, including both PTO drivelines and secondary shafts and drivelines on agricultural equipment, developed at Purdue University was mined to identify all cases involving children and adolescents under age 18 who had been involved in a driveline-related incident from 1970 through 2004. Although these incidents did not account for a high percentage of all childhood farm-related injuries, this age group was found to make up nearly one in four documented agricultural driveline incidents. Of the 685 cases in the database with known ages, 151 were identified as youth under age 18. Findings indicated that these incidents often resulted in catastrophic injuries including amputation, spinal cord injuries, and compound bone fractures. Over the period studied, the trend in documented cases is declining, with recent years reporting below the yearly average and 2004 reporting no fatalities. Youth, primarily males, age 13 had the highest frequency of incidents, and over 50% of all cases occurred to youth ages 12 to 17. Fall was identified as the season with the most reported incidents. Amputations were documented in nearly 50% of all cases, and augers, elevators, and conveyors were the machines most frequently identified as being involved in the incident. Recommendations and strategies that specifically target the childhood injury problem related to agricultural drivelines are provided.