diff --git a/src/drivers/px4io/px4io.cpp b/src/drivers/px4io/px4io.cpp
index d212be7661..821eb52ffa 100644
--- a/src/drivers/px4io/px4io.cpp
+++ b/src/drivers/px4io/px4io.cpp
@@ -817,6 +817,11 @@ PX4IO::init()
 
 	}
 
+	/* set safety to off if circuit breaker enabled */
+	if (circuit_breaker_enabled("CBRK_IO_SAFETY", CBRK_IO_SAFETY_KEY)) {
+		(void)io_reg_set(PX4IO_PAGE_SETUP, PX4IO_P_SETUP_FORCE_SAFETY_OFF, PX4IO_FORCE_SAFETY_MAGIC);
+	}
+
 	/* try to claim the generic PWM output device node as well - it's OK if we fail at this */
 	ret = register_driver(PWM_OUTPUT_DEVICE_PATH, &fops, 0666, (void *)this);