4 ms·

I've always wondered: is a motorcycle helmet always more protective than a hard hat, or are there cases where a hard hat protects better?

taneq 7y ago
Yes, a motorcycle helmet (even an open face one) is far more protective than a worksite hard hat. That’s part of why they cost hundreds of dollars compared to $10 or whatever.
- aequitas 7y ago
  I can't think of an example but there might be situations where a motorcycle helmet would increase your injury because it is harder to remove. Reminds me of the footwear worn at a glass factory I once visited. The glassblowers there wore open shoes without ties, eg: slippers and not normal shoes. The reason was that if you got a drop of molten glas in your shoe you could easily pull your foot out and prevent the worst part of the burn. With closed shoes before you got them off you would have severe burns.
  - stronglikedan 7y ago
    > there might be situations where a motorcycle helmet would increase your injury because it is harder to remove. Same can be said for seat belts, but it's the wrong metric to measure efficacy. Overall, they prevent injury/loss of life magnitudes more than they contribute to it.
    - aequitas 7y ago
      Same can be said for wrapping yourself in bubblewrap every morning. It all depends on the situation and the risk you expect to encounter. To be clear, I'm not in doubt of the safety superiority of motorcycle helmets when riding a bike. But wearing one at a jobsite seems to introduce more risk then it prevents (as @dsfyu404ed mentions).
  - dharmab 7y ago
    A good motorcycle helmet has an emergency release system, but it's still a 3-man job for professional EMTs. It's recommended to always leave the helmet on after a crash and stabilize the injured rider.
    - aequitas 7y ago
      I haven't been riding for years now so I missed out on this development, good to know it exists.
  - Kluny 7y ago
    I was told to always take my motorcycle helmet off if I got into a roadside fight, since an attacker can grab the jaw bar and basically have control of your head. I haven't had to test the idea though.
    - hnick 7y ago
      I'm not too familiar with fistfights or helmets but I would've thought being able to strike them in the face without much risk to your own face would be an advantage in such a case. It would be like grabbing a collar or someone's ears, which can work, but you've tied up at least one of your hands doing that.
      - dharmab 7y ago
        Once someone can grab your head you're losing the fight. Best option is to hop on your bike and run- you're faster and can take shortcuts that cars can't. If you have no choice, taking your helmet off as using it as a blunt weapon is your best option.
  - taneq 7y ago
    The classic example where I live is where a farmer went over the handlebars of his farm bike, head first into a shallow hole the ground, and his helmet caught in the hole causing it to snap his neck. The argument then was that if he hadn't been wearing a helmet his head wouldn't have been stuck and he'd have survived. Of course, your chances of simply being killed by a blow to the head when crashing a bike are far far higher than your chances of getting your helmet wedged in precisely the wrong sized hole, so helmets are still a huge win. Likewise with seatbelts people always worry about what would happen if they're T-boned off a pier into deep water, or something similarly unlikely, when chances are they're just going to drive into the back of someone and the seat belt would save them. The glass factory example seems odd, though - in that environment wouldn't you be wearing high cut leather workboots, such that any glass falling on them would just flow/bounce off?
dsfyu404ed 7y ago
Motorcycle helmet is fixed to your head whereas a hard hat is not. In many situations an impact sends the hard hat flying with minimal kinetic energy imparted on the former occupant. In those cases a motorcycle helmet would be worse because the wearer's head would move around more making neck injury more likely. For top of the head impacts they're likely close to equal since the strap system in a hard hat is pretty damn optimized for that use case. For repeated impact (fairly rare on the job site vs the default in motorcycle crashes) the motorcycle helmet is obviously superior and it has superior coverage. This is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. Wearing a motorcycle helmet (or any helmet that covers the ears) massively reduces situational awareness and wearing one 8+hr/day for the length of one's career would likely not be good for ones neck. It is not the right tool for the hard hat's job (and vise versa). Disclaimer: Not a helmet engineer.
- dharmab 7y ago
  The best data we have on mtotocycle injuries shows that about one third of motorcycle head hits are in the chin area. It's a totally different hazard model. See the Hurt Report for details.
thrower123 7y ago
Most hard hats I've ever had to wear are really only good for protecting against certain small classes of injuries anyway. If somebody drops a wrench or a hammer from an overhead catwalk, or if you're felling a tree and knock loose a widowmaker, it means it'll knock you down, rather than split your head. A thin plastic shell and the laughable harness in most of them doesn't do much aside from help capture condensation and steam up your safety glasses. When I was working in a powerplant, if you were working on the upper floors above the boiler, it was usually hot enough to start softening up the plastic on the cheaper ones.
- ghaff 7y ago
  Those small classes are pretty common though. See also things like small chunks of rock when climbing. There are a lot of opportunities for small, fast moving, hard objects to hit your head in a lot of situations. On a job site it’s also easy to hit your head hard on low objects and stun or cut yourself.

taneq 7y ago

Yes, a motorcycle helmet (even an open face one) is far more protective than a worksite hard hat. That’s part of why they cost hundreds of dollars compared to $10 or whatever.

aequitas 7y ago
I can't think of an example but there might be situations where a motorcycle helmet would increase your injury because it is harder to remove. Reminds me of the footwear worn at a glass factory I once visited. The glassblowers there wore open shoes without ties, eg: slippers and not normal shoes. The reason was that if you got a drop of molten glas in your shoe you could easily pull your foot out and prevent the worst part of the burn. With closed shoes before you got them off you would have severe burns.
- stronglikedan 7y ago
  > there might be situations where a motorcycle helmet would increase your injury because it is harder to remove. Same can be said for seat belts, but it's the wrong metric to measure efficacy. Overall, they prevent injury/loss of life magnitudes more than they contribute to it.
  - aequitas 7y ago
    Same can be said for wrapping yourself in bubblewrap every morning. It all depends on the situation and the risk you expect to encounter. To be clear, I'm not in doubt of the safety superiority of motorcycle helmets when riding a bike. But wearing one at a jobsite seems to introduce more risk then it prevents (as @dsfyu404ed mentions).
- dharmab 7y ago
  A good motorcycle helmet has an emergency release system, but it's still a 3-man job for professional EMTs. It's recommended to always leave the helmet on after a crash and stabilize the injured rider.
  - aequitas 7y ago
    I haven't been riding for years now so I missed out on this development, good to know it exists.
- Kluny 7y ago
  I was told to always take my motorcycle helmet off if I got into a roadside fight, since an attacker can grab the jaw bar and basically have control of your head. I haven't had to test the idea though.
  - hnick 7y ago
    I'm not too familiar with fistfights or helmets but I would've thought being able to strike them in the face without much risk to your own face would be an advantage in such a case. It would be like grabbing a collar or someone's ears, which can work, but you've tied up at least one of your hands doing that.
    - dharmab 7y ago
      Once someone can grab your head you're losing the fight. Best option is to hop on your bike and run- you're faster and can take shortcuts that cars can't. If you have no choice, taking your helmet off as using it as a blunt weapon is your best option.
- taneq 7y ago
  The classic example where I live is where a farmer went over the handlebars of his farm bike, head first into a shallow hole the ground, and his helmet caught in the hole causing it to snap his neck. The argument then was that if he hadn't been wearing a helmet his head wouldn't have been stuck and he'd have survived. Of course, your chances of simply being killed by a blow to the head when crashing a bike are far far higher than your chances of getting your helmet wedged in precisely the wrong sized hole, so helmets are still a huge win. Likewise with seatbelts people always worry about what would happen if they're T-boned off a pier into deep water, or something similarly unlikely, when chances are they're just going to drive into the back of someone and the seat belt would save them. The glass factory example seems odd, though - in that environment wouldn't you be wearing high cut leather workboots, such that any glass falling on them would just flow/bounce off?

dsfyu404ed 7y ago

Motorcycle helmet is fixed to your head whereas a hard hat is not. In many situations an impact sends the hard hat flying with minimal kinetic energy imparted on the former occupant. In those cases a motorcycle helmet would be worse because the wearer's head would move around more making neck injury more likely. For top of the head impacts they're likely close to equal since the strap system in a hard hat is pretty damn optimized for that use case. For repeated impact (fairly rare on the job site vs the default in motorcycle crashes) the motorcycle helmet is obviously superior and it has superior coverage. This is kind of an apples to oranges comparison. Wearing a motorcycle helmet (or any helmet that covers the ears) massively reduces situational awareness and wearing one 8+hr/day for the length of one's career would likely not be good for ones neck. It is not the right tool for the hard hat's job (and vise versa). Disclaimer: Not a helmet engineer.

dharmab 7y ago
The best data we have on mtotocycle injuries shows that about one third of motorcycle head hits are in the chin area. It's a totally different hazard model. See the Hurt Report for details.

thrower123 7y ago

Most hard hats I've ever had to wear are really only good for protecting against certain small classes of injuries anyway. If somebody drops a wrench or a hammer from an overhead catwalk, or if you're felling a tree and knock loose a widowmaker, it means it'll knock you down, rather than split your head. A thin plastic shell and the laughable harness in most of them doesn't do much aside from help capture condensation and steam up your safety glasses. When I was working in a powerplant, if you were working on the upper floors above the boiler, it was usually hot enough to start softening up the plastic on the cheaper ones.

ghaff 7y ago
Those small classes are pretty common though. See also things like small chunks of rock when climbing. There are a lot of opportunities for small, fast moving, hard objects to hit your head in a lot of situations. On a job site it’s also easy to hit your head hard on low objects and stun or cut yourself.