Virginia Tech unveils hard hat, helmet rating system

Dive Brief:

• Virginia Tech’s Helmet Lab has released a first-of-its-kind rating system for construction hard hats and helmets that mirrors rankings used for sport helmets.
• The findings, shared publicly Monday, indicate that Type II helmets — or those with interior energy-absorbing materials and protection for the top and sides of the head — better protect workers from severe injury. Results show the shift to Type II reduces risk, on average, by 34% for fall-related concussion and by 65% for skull fracture. 
• The research, which began in 2024 with funding from industry partners, simulated real-world collisions in an attempt to accurately assess how a helmet or hard hat protects a worker. 

Dive Brief:

Scott Greenhaus, a 40-plus-year construction veteran, was working on the Florida International University bridge in Miami when it collapsed in 2018.

“When we got to the site, we noticed their hard hats were all lying on the ground where the structure came to rest,” Greenhaus said in the Monday news release. “So we looked into it and said, ‘Wow, we’ve got to change the way we do business from here.’”

Greenhaus, who co-founded the advocacy group Hard Hats to Helmets, believes the Helmet Lab’s rating system is a step in the right direction to keeping workers safe and improving awareness around headgear.

Assessing construction gear differs greatly from studying football and bike helmets, Barry Miller, director of outreach for the Helmet Lab, told Construction Dive. The team attempted to recreate 14-foot to 25-foot falls. 

But the methodology isn’t as simple as dropping the personal protective equipment from height.

“You do everything you can to avoid hitting your head first,” Miller said. That meant 14-foot to 25-foot falls create impacts similar to plunging from 5 to 7.5 feet.That’s a lot higher than the industry standard of testing 2-foot drops, Miller said. 

“I think we’re better at simulating real-world accident scenarios,” he added.

The result is a one to five star ranking for 17 helmets, both Type I and Type II. The scale includes ratings for predicted incidence of skull fractures and concussions compared to the average Type 1 helmet. Miller says the lab intends to continue to do more research on more kinds of headgear, too.

The rankings signal a clear winner between hard hats types in effectiveness. Out of nine Type II helmets on the list, only two don’t have five stars — they each have three. On the other hand, the highest-ranked Type I helmet has four stars, but the majority have either one or two stars.

Miller said the Helmet Lab’s ranking system is the first to definitively show one kind of protective gear is safer than another.

“It’s the first real data set that says something concrete. Type II saves lives,” he said.