Farming is a dangerous job—340 fatalities in the U.S. last year alone. Brett J. grew up on a farm and offered these two bits of frightening trivia explaining why farming is fraught with peril:

1) PTO (Power-Take-Off) Shafts. Think of a car’s driveshaft spinning at 2100 RPM’s two feet off the ground with no safety guards. These shafts connect a splined shaft on a tractor to an implement such as a grain auger or dryer. The PTO shaft thereby powers the implement via the tractor’s engine. Happen to get your clothes snagged on one, and you too will suddenly achieve 2100 RPM’s and bounce off the ground on each revolution. Surprisingly, many farmers survive these accidents. Modern implements mitigate this risk with slippery plastic sleeves on the shafts, but a lot of older implements still in use utilize solid, square shafts. Also, older tractors often have the PTO hook-ups positioned inches away from the steps leading to the operator’s seat. The average grain farmer can name at least one acquaintance who has been maimed or killed by a PTO shaft.

So bad news, right? Check out these descriptions from the “Straight Facts About PRO Shafts pamphlet:

The typical PTO shaft can:

* Wrap up 424 feet of shoe lace in one minute at 540 rpm, or 785 feet of shoe lace at 1000 rpm. How long is your shoe lace?
* Wrap your arm or leg around the PTO shaft nine times in one second at 540 PTO rpm, or nearly 16 times in one second at 1000 PTO rpm. Is your body that flexible?
* Produce second degree burns on your skin, even if you are lucky enough to have the PTO strip only the cotton clothing from your body. Nylon and other synthetics will cut into skin and muscle tissue rather than rub across it.
* Grind away skin, muscles, tendons, and break bones starting in less than three-fourths of one second when you are caught by an unshielded PTO shaft.
* A very strong man can generate about three-fourths of one horsepower. A tractor transmits nearly all of the engine horsepower to the PTO shaft. There is simply no contest; even between a very strong man and a PTO shaft — the tractor will win.

The National Ag Safety Database advises rescue workers at PTO shaft accidents to, among other things, “unrwap the victim.” Brutal.

If that weren’t bad enough, Brett continues:

2) Grain Combines. A combine is also called a harvester, which by either name is a very large piece of equipment that is driven through a field to harvest crops and separate the seeds from the chaff. Combines often plug with weeds or too much crop, and the clogs are much easier to clear out (by hand) if the harvesting/separating mechanisms are running. Make a mistake at that point, and you are in for the same short, violent ride meant for wheat seeds. The non-technical description would involve 50 electric carving knives feeding into a giant steel series of laundry mangles followed up by a couple dozen kitchen blenders dumping onto steel-belted weed-whackers. The whole affair is driven by a 250 horsepower diesel, so while all your pieces might not make the whole trip, you’ll be too dead to know. Responsible farmers use death-by-combine as a worst-case warning to their children of the need to be very careful on the farm, but that doesn’t mean it never really happens.

These are two common dangers out of dozens on the farm. As with most high-risk jobs, the dangers of farming are mostly caused by the failure to take proper safely precautions. When you work for yourself on a very tight schedule dictated by the weather, it is normal to get in a hurry and cut some corners. Additionally, familiarity does breed contempt, and the average farmer is all too familiar with the tools of the trade.