• waigl@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    The shape of a helmet is important for how it handles shocks and impacts. I doubt this thing is as protective as a similarly heavy helmet with a plain old bowl shape.

    • psycotica0@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      I’m no safety engineer… but wouldn’t the contoured top take some glancing blows, and rather than deflecting off the side of the head, convert then into direct hits on top of the head?

      Like, isn’t this basically a concussion scoop?

      Wouldn’t the stiff wide brim convert hits that previously would have missed your head into neck tortion or compression?

      • nwtreeoctopus@sh.itjust.works
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        5 days ago

        Reminds me of how the fantasy medieval plate armor with boob cups would direct the blow directly into the sternum and kill the wearer.

      • ramble81@lemmy.zip
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        5 days ago

        The brim could cause an issue. Imagine two items falling in rapid succession. With a bowl helmet the first one glances off, second one hits and you’re protected.

        Now with the cowboy hat, first one hits the brim and flips the hat off your head. Second one…. Yeah, that’s gonna suck.

        • deltapi@lemmy.world
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          5 days ago

          Yep. Firefighting helmets have a strap for that reason.

          I think that it’d be way better to loosely attach a thin, lightweight, cardboard or thin plastic brim to a ‘real’ hardhat than use one of the faux cowboy hats.

    • Zarobi@aussie.zone
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      5 days ago

      The main problem is you can’t tell at a glance that it’s a safety helmet. Everyone on site is drilled to report safety risks like wearing noncompliant headgear to foreman / manager / whatever. It causes confusion having to explain its actually compliant to a safety inspector

      Just wear the ugly hat; it’s construction, not a catwalk

    • Cethin@lemmy.zip
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      5 days ago

      Yeah, if someone actually wanted to make this a good product then it’d be a regular hard hat with a fabric or leather cowboy hat over the top.

    • cannedtuna@lemmy.world
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      6 days ago

      Possibly not for much longer. I see those stupid cowboy hat hard hats worn by GCs on occasion, but more and more I’ve seen a push by safety for Type II, side impact rated, hard hats. Pretty soon everyone’s might need to use the rock climbing looking hard hats with the chin strap.

  • Malgas@beehaw.org
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    5 days ago

    Not sure how bad it would be in practice, but the divot on the top of this hat seems like it might funnel things that would have glanced off a standard hardhat into a solid impact at the top of the head instead. And the brim could likewise be problematic.

    • Ephera@lemmy.ml
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      5 days ago

      Yeah, I could see the brim being useful for shielding from the sun, but would probably want to use a shape like a pith helmet instead:

      That way the brim might actually even offer useful protection, although should still test that it’s not dangerous when you fall off a roof or whatever. Could probably just make the brim out of cloth in that case, though.

    • orbitz@lemmy.ca
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      5 days ago

      From wearing regular ones (okay many years ago working in wood sort of mills/production but not long either) I’m not sure the divot would make much a difference if proper clearance from sides to the inside harness, though guess may force impact in a way not intended for proper safety gear.

      Still doesn’t seem quite right to me, cause you wouldn’t want your head knocked to a side if the brim was hit.

      Probably a reason they were never designed in that way.

  • k0mprssd@lemmy.zip
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    5 days ago

    unfortunately most sites ive worked on outright ban these. either on the “ppe required” sign on the fencing/gates outside, or mentioned in some sort of orientation.

  • Godric@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    In other news, the safety manager has hired two new people to manually check the heatwave of every special jackass on the worksite, instead of just glancing at it.