My son showed me a hard hat that all of his company's employees are wearing now. It is vented, padded, and has a chin strap that is now required. The most impressive feature is an embedded chip in the front. When a cell phone is held up to the chip, vital info is displayed, such as the employer contact, insurance company and number, medication lists, emergency contacts, blood type, organ donor, and a lot more info that would be helpful to a first responder and the hospital ER team.

The chin strap is required so that if an employee falls, the helmet stays on. My son had a roofer sub fall backward this year while climbing a ladder. He split his head wide open because his old-style helmet came off during the descent.

I expect the new helmets are expensive. I put one on, and it was very comfortable.

I fell 14' off a grade beam, when the teeth broke on a pipe wrench I was using to twist a 1 3/8" thick drill bit out, broke. I had just enough time to think I'm going all the way down. My hard hat stayed on. When I hit, I hit head first and then my body collapsed down. The straps in the hard hat broke the plastic mounts out, which likely kept me from being paralyzed or killed. I kept ahold of the pipe wrench.

I was stunned. Our safety guy jumped in the hole and asked if I could feel my arms and legs. I got scared and had an adrenaline surge. I jumped up and climbed out of the hole. Everyone kept yelling for me to lay down. They said Dwight is going to call an ambulance. I sprinted down the drive, caught up with Dwight in his moving truck and knocked on his window startling him. He said I thought you were a goner.

Dwight said I had to go to the hospital. I drove myself, in my car. Our safety guy went with me.

They took 27 X-Rays of my head, neck and spine. I lost 3 3/4" of height temporarily, from compressing my spine.

The doctor said the only things saving me were the hard hat supports tearing and having an incredible amount of muscle mass in my neck, shoulders and back.

I only missed the rest of the day of work. I went tubing the next day, which was a Saturday.

Having a strap on hard hats is a very good idea.

Close to a year later, I was back at the site, touching up some work, when I heard the iron worker, who loaned me the wrench, telling my story to another worker. He said something like I loaned my wrench to this guy. He and another guy were trying to twist an enormous drill bit out of the concrete. The first guy could barely budge it. The second guy got on it and was spinning it around fast, when he broke my wrench. He fell 25' landed on his head, jumped up and chased down a speeding truck, like superman. It was the most amazing thing I've ever seen.

I walked over and said that was me. He went (expletives) it was you. He said we all thought you were dead. He then complained he had to buy a new wrench, but was glad I was okay. I tried to give him some money for the wrench, but he refused it.

Keith

Chin straps can be a hazard, you don't want something to catch on the strap system and yank you with it.

The strap would have to be tight to the chin, with nothing dangling down. The anchors would also have to be weak enough, it could break free, if pulled hard.

Keith

Safety first…….unless it’s too expensive, then get the $20 certified one……lol.
Here’s a real good one I showed to our VP…..Safety 3rd and Mikes 100% correct.

Do you even know the purpose of hard hats in construction?

I always assumed it was to protect the wearer from things above them

But apparently it performed another way for KeithC

I've been on multiple jobs where companies required their employees to wear those star wars storm trooper helmets. So far no one I have met likes them. Especially jobs where the biggest falling hazard is a cloud.

There is one local company that makes their employees wear them all the time, no matter where or what they are doing. They look absolutely ridiculous.

Kind of like fire chiefs at news conferences or in their office being interviewed.

I can understand the concept of the chin straps but personally think they look dumb and so do most all the guys Ive talked to on jobsites. I keep my hard hat tight enough on my head that it does not fall off when Im looking down. However a lot of idiots that work with me do not. They barely look down and it falls off. I could see the need for the straps for them. I understand the importance of safety but I also see times where it becomes too ridiculous and one sided. I worked on a dollar general warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama once. The GC was Clayco. They had a little safety (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) that would ride around on his cart and seemed to love picking on us for some reason. We were laying sewer line starting in the far back right side of the property about 400 yards away from the building and any other crews working. We were told we had to drive rebar stakes in the ground and wrap caution tape around our trench when done every evening. I understand that it makes good sense. However the safety nut demanded we put caps on the rebar stakes to prevent impalement. Impalement from what? No one works above or near us and the stakes are 4ft tall. Yet the rebar in the foundation of the building only had maybe one cap per every 5-6 rebar exposed to overhead and nearby workers. Makes no sense. When I brought that point up to the safety guy he gave no answer and still demanded we put caps on ours. The same safety guy would not allow us to separate a fiberglass extension ladder to lighten the weight as we put it back and forth in the trench box. I asked why? We are still using the section with the feet on it and the ladder still extends 3ft above the trench box as required. He replied well OSHA will allow you to do it but we don’t! Then again I see guys at the building doing the same thing as us with no penalty. Safety should be common sense and definitely not one sided.

a lot of the tree guys have been wearing these for a while. it started with climbers but it has progressed to more

they even build a comms system for them

https://www.wesspur.com/safety/arborist-helmets

And guys have had them snag on chin straps and snap their neck, I made my ground guys go back to traditional hard hats.

Most of the hard hats I have worn had a knob you could turn, to tighten, or loosen the fit. I always kept mine pretty tight, which was easy because I have a huge head. Some of the guys with smaller heads couldn't adjust their hats tight enough to stay on, if they tilted their heads much.

We had to cap rebar with a plastic cap, even if you couldn't possibly fall on it and with a plastic cap, with a metal piece in it, if we were working above it.

One of the guys I worked with slipped on clay and hit his hard hat hard into a stick of uncapped rebar. It gouged the hat badly, for a couple of inches and knocked it off, but it kept him from getting sliced open and even from being bruised. Another guy I worked with had the bank crumble and he fell and hit his head into Simmons panels, for a concrete wall pour. The hard hat kept him from embedding the metal bracing in his skull. He still ended up crumpled up in between the bank and panels, a little dazed.

I always hated wearing hard hats, especially in hot weather, but I can see the importance of wearing one.

Keith

I have worn a hard hat most all my working life. I find them useful. Mostly for a face sheild, welding hood, and ear cuffs holder. But have use mine to block it my car when I had a flat and needed to reposition the jack. It held the car left some lines in the ribs across the top. They have keep me from knocking my head more than once, but had i not had the hat on the brim would not have blocked my vew of the thing I hit. Not always but enough it got aggravating.

In general safety equipment is good but it can become more hazardous than not having it in some situations and Osha even agrees. Unless its been changed if youare doing leading edge decking you dont need to be tied off if the floor below you or max fall hight is 15'or less. And connecting Isteel iron working it was 30' of course everywhere you actually work wants you tied off at 4' or 6' but thats what Oshawa said in my 10hr Oshawa class last time I was in one.
Im 5'8" tie off at 6' here is a 6' lanurd with shock pack have fun. Just tie off overhead .

Common sense laws or rules are long gone. There is none anymore and a company needs to cover their arse with stupid rules made up by some engineer who’s never picked up a hammer, shovel or strapped on the hooks.
Like Kieth said, a half decent lid that’s snug that’ll cover side impacts as well. Not just for stuff dropping on you. Buddy took a ride on a ladder when pulling up a commercial service and the “engineered” dead end he was tied off to let go. Side impact from the ground wrecked his hard hat but just a few scratches on him.
That was his 9th life though, he did some crazy stuff. He got bit bad a couple years ago after 26 years in the trade…….RIP Kyle.