# This is why you wear a hard hat **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 21, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219 "2012-01-21T15:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 3:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/1 "2012-01-21T15:39:00Z")
[ > [@](#): > > “When they brought in the picture, I said to the doctor `Is this a joke? Did you get that out of the doctors joke file?'" the 32-year-old recalled. "The doctor said `No man, that’s in your head.'” ]([http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_ODD\_NAIL\_IN\_THE\_BRAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-21-07-24-36](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_NAIL_IN_THE_BRAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-21-07-24-36)) What was in his head? A 3.25" nail from a nail gun. > [@](#): > > Autullo, who lives in Orland Park, said he was building a shed Tuesday and using the nail gun above his head when he fired it. With nothing to indicate that a nail hadn’t simply whizzed by his head, his long-time companion, Gail Glaenzer, cleaned the wound with peroxide. > > “It really felt like I got punched on the side of the head,” he said, adding that he continued working. “I thought it went past my ear.” ---
**Author:** ![Rachellelogram](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rachellelogram/32/8689_2.png) [@Rachellelogram](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rachellelogram)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/2 "2012-01-21T20:07:36Z")
Wow, lucky guy. Are hard hats hard enough to prevent nails from penetrating them? I don’t work in construction, so it’s an honest question. ---
**Author:** ![Snowboarder\_Bo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowboarder_bo/32/229_2.png) [@Snowboarder\_Bo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snowboarder_Bo)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/3 "2012-01-21T20:40:04Z")
Not if you were to press the nailgun onto the hard hat and then pull the trigger, no. But in normal use it would likely slow or deflect the nail enough that all 3.25" wouldn’t have been embedded in his brain like that. Nailguns are dangerous. I’ve personally seen 2 people shoot their hands with them.\* Safety goggles and a hardhat are just a good idea when working with any type of power/pneumatic/hydraulic tool. \*Curiously (perhaps) the most common tool injury IME comes from screwdrivers. And some of those are just as debilitating as shooting a nail through your hand with a nailgun. ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/4 "2012-01-21T20:41:29Z")
Good thing the hospital thought to take a plain x-ray first, rather than jump right to an MRI, where the magnetic field would most likely drag the nail through his brain in a sub-optimal fashion. I don’t know if a typical plastic “bump cap” would completely prevent a large nail from penetrating and going into a skull. My hunch is that he would have wound up with the cap nailed to his head. It certainly would have been a more obvious injury at that moment. ---
**Author:** ![Queen\_Tonya](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/4491bb/32.png) [@Queen\_Tonya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Queen_Tonya)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2012, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/5 "2012-01-21T20:44:24Z")
A coworker of mine was using a nail gun at home and stopped to remark “If I were doing this at work, I’d have to wear safety glasses and a hard hat. I hate those freaking things!” Yep, the very next nail fractured and a 2 inch metal splinter went into his eye. Luckily for him, it missed all the important stuff and he can still see, but damn, that was stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/6 "2012-01-22T02:47:17Z")
> [@gotpasswords](#): > > \ > > I don’t know if a typical plastic “bump cap” would completely prevent a large nail from penetrating and going into a skull. **My hunch is that he would have wound up with the cap nailed to his head.** It certainly would have been a more obvious injury at that moment. [Vlad the Impaler](http://www.castleofspirits.com/vlad.html) could have made good use of this tool. Maybe he actually had one! > [@](#): > > THE NAILING OF THE HATS > > Another story that there are a few different versions of. > > Foreign Ambassadors were at Vlad’s court at Tirgoviste. They were granted an audience with the prince and refused to remove their hats which at the time was the custom when in the presence of a prince in Wallachia. Vlad was angered and instead of immediately impaling them he had their hats nailed to their heads so that they could never remove them. > > Another version: > The envoys were Turkish. They refused to remove their Phrygian caps. When questioned why they said it was not the custom of their fathers to do so. Vlad ordered their hats nailed to their heads with three nails so that they might never break such and excellent tradition. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/7 "2012-01-22T04:17:48Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > [url=[http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US\_ODD\_NAIL\_IN\_THE\_BRAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-21-07-24-36](http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_ODD_NAIL_IN_THE_BRAIN?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-01-21-07-24-36)] > > What was in his head? A 3.25" nail from a nail gun. I just can’t picture how he managed to nail his head from behind like that, luckily he didn’t hit any vital organs… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 5:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/8 "2012-01-22T05:57:37Z")
> [@Queen\_Tonya](#): > > A coworker of mine was using a nail gun at home and stopped to remark “If I were doing this at work, I’d have to wear safety glasses and a hard hat. I hate those freaking things!” > > Yep, the very next nail fractured and a 2 inch metal splinter went into his eye. Luckily for him, it missed all the important stuff and he can still see, but damn, that was stupid. Yeah, all those annoying safety professionals and rules forcing people to not hurt or kill themselves. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Uber\_the\_Goober](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/58956e/32.png) [@Uber\_the\_Goober](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uber_the_Goober)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 7:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/9 "2012-01-22T07:03:47Z")
> [@Snowboarder\_Bo](#): > > \ > \*Curiously (perhaps) the most common tool injury IME comes from screwdrivers. And some of those are just as debilitating as shooting a nail through your hand with a nailgun. For real! I don’t even know why they still make flathead (slotted) screws anymore! It’s frickin ridiculous because the screwdriver almost always comes slipping out of the head of the screw while you’re tightening it. ---
**Author:** ![Argent\_Towers](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e8c25b/32.png) [@Argent\_Towers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Argent_Towers)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 7:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/10 "2012-01-22T07:42:59Z")
When I was a kid, I got an awesome miniature kid-sized hard hat, during a tour of a quarry. ---
**Author:** ![mangeorge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d78d45/32.png) [@mangeorge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mangeorge)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/11 "2012-01-22T15:54:16Z")
of course. So would I. This comes up often in this kind of injury, but I never hear if he gets it. Why not, I wonder. It’s his property. I know from tv (tv doesn’t lie) that some doctors keep trophys. Maybe I’ll ask about the legalities in GQ. Piece (of mind) mangeorge ---
**Author:** ![Cat\_Whisperer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cat_whisperer/32/4839_2.png) [@Cat\_Whisperer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cat_Whisperer)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/12 "2012-01-22T19:29:49Z")
My husband was able to keep his massive gallstone from his gall bladder removal surgery - they don’t normally do that, but they made an exception in his case (it really is a massive stone - think black olive sized). ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/this-is-why-you-wear-a-hard-hat/610219/13 "2012-01-22T21:10:05Z")
Years ago I used to go with my two-year-old to watch some houses being built. The bulldozer was a few hundred yards away, but my son always insisted on wearing his little Bob the Builder hat, to stay safe.