Construction workers face dangers beyond falling. That’s why this June, Danella is rolling out Milwaukee BOLT™ Type 2 safety helmets across all divisions, backed by independent research showing dramatically reduced risk of concussion, skull fracture, and fatal injury. Because when falls are the leading cause of fatalities in your industry, better protection isn’t optional; it’s overdue.
It’s no surprise that slips, trips, and falls are not usually the first hazard that comes to mind when thinking about construction dangers, which could be why they’re often so easily overlooked. What may be more difficult to ignore is the fact that 844 workers lost their lives to fall-related incidents in 2024 alone, making up over 16% of all workplace fatalities that year.
What makes these numbers even more bleak is where a lot of those injuries are actually coming from. According to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), construction workers experience more traumatic brain injuries than workers in any other industry, and approximately 25% of all construction fatalities involve a traumatic brain injury. What often gets overlooked is that a significant portion of those brain injuries don’t come from something falling on a worker. They come from the worker falling themselves; slipping on a wet surface, tripping on uneven ground, or going down at the same level. The traditional hard hat was never designed for that scenario. Its core design has remained largely unchanged since World War II, built primarily to protect against falling objects overhead, and not much else.
That gap in protection is exactly why Danella is making a change. This June, Danella will begin transitioning from traditional hard hats to Milwaukee BOLT™ Type 2 safety helmets, complete with a chin strap for added security, across our divisions nationwide. The decision wasn’t made lightly. Independent testing by Virginia Tech found that Type 2 safety helmets offer a 51% reduction in concussion and traumatic brain injury risk and an 81% reduction in skull fracture risk compared to traditional hard hats. In an industry where falls are the leading cause of fatalities, that kind of difference in protection matters.
At Danella, safety has always been more than a policy; it’s a culture. From the Stretch and Flex program that gets crews moving safely before the workday begins to fall-prevention planning and open communication about hazards on every job site, protecting our people is built into everything we do. Transitioning to helmets is only the next chapter in that commitment.
The hard hat had a good run, but now it’s time for an upgrade.
– Morgan Peta, Marketing Intern
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