For some employees, car accidents are one of the main risks that they face. For instance, some research indicates that crashes and collisions are one of the top reasons for workplace injuries. Those who suffer injuries could be truck drivers, taxi cab drivers, sales reps or heavy machine operators on various job sites.
When someone is driving as part of their employment, they can seek workers’ compensation benefits for the injuries that they’ve suffered. But these situations can get a bit complicated. For some workers, there are times when a car accident may qualify for workers’ comp benefits – and other times when it may not. It’s important to make the distinction.
Were you on the clock?
The biggest question after many accidents is whether or not you qualified as an employee at that time or not. Were you already on the clock? If not, you may not qualify.
For example, say that you are commuting to work in the morning when you get involved in an accident. In the vast majority of cases, you would not qualify for benefits because you hadn’t yet signed in to work. You are still on personal time and personally responsible.
But if you were driving from one job site to another, then you would qualify. You may also be able to seek workers comp benefits if you were given tasks or responsibilities to complete on the way to work – such as picking up coffee for the office.
Your legal options
In other words, a car accident case may not be as cut and dry as you assume, but car accidents do pose a very real threat in many industries. If you have been hurt on the job, be sure you know exactly what options you have and what legal steps to take.
