Video Of Metal Objects Being Dropped On Watermelons Shows How Effective Hardhats Can Be

The 2023 Annual Construction Safety Week is wrapping up and now is a perfect time to remind ourselves how effective wearing hardhats can be by dropping them on watermelons to see what happens.

This footage below is a video that’s gone viral again on Twitter after being posted by Black & Veatch several years ago. They drop various metal objects from high above onto a watermelon, with and without a hardhat, to see what happens.

It should come as no shock that the watermelon gets absolutely demolished by heavy and sharp metal objects when there is no hardhat protection. However, it is quite eye-opening to see how protective these hardhats can be for a simple watermelon.

Heavy Metal Objects vs Watermelons With Hardhats

Anyone who has ever sliced open or dropped a watermelon knows how easy it can be to crack. But these watermelons with hardhats are remarkably resilient to dangerous metal objects.

The theme of 2023 Safety Week was ‘Our Aim – Zero Harm’ which is a very lofty goal. But it’s evident from this video what can happen when objects commonly found on a construction site are dropped onto someone’s head.

It is also evident how effective hardhats can be in preventing a potentially fatal injury.

The video above was originally shared to YouTube in 2016. It has received a new life after the popular science-focused Twitter account ‘Massimo’ shared a clip from it:

The objects are dropped from a height of 30 feet. Those objects include a one-pound bolt, a 4-pound sledgehammer, and a 6-pound pipe wrench.

It doesn’t seem fair to call it ‘carnage’ when the watermelons are completely demolished by falling objects but it’s also easy to imagine that as a human skull. That would, in fact, be very preventable carnage.

If there was ever any doubt about the effectiveness of wearing a hardhat that doubt should be completely erased by the video above.