When Are Car Accident Injuries Compensable through Workers’ Compensation?
You may have heard that car accidents injuries are not usually compensable through the Maryland workers’ compensation system. However, it is critical to understand that this is true only when the collision essentially happens off the clock. If you are injured in a motor vehicle crash while you are commuting to your job, or while you are heading home after your workday has ended, any injuries that occur while you are coming or going are not compensable through the workers’ compensation system.
Yet injuries are compensable when they happen on the job or are job-related, such as collisions on construction sites that result in injuries to construction workers or crashes involving delivery drivers who are injured. Our Maryland workers’ compensation attorneys can explain in more detail below.
Motor Vehicle Injuries at Work
As the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, there are currently “millions of workers” who “drive or ride in a motor vehicle as part of their jobs.” Given how common riding or driving is to many different types of work, it should not come as a surprise that the CDC also cites motor vehicle crashes as the currently leading cause of work-related deaths in America. Indeed, between 2011 and 2022, there were 21,000 work-related fatalities linked to traffic collisions, accounting for about 35 percent of all reported work-related deaths. That number does not even include pedestrians — such as construction workers performing work on a road or highway shoulder — who are struck by vehicles.
What types of jobs place workers at greatest risk for a motor vehicle injury? The CDC emphasizes that any kind of job requiring driving or riding in a vehicle, or working in an area where motor vehicles are present, puts a worker at risk. The following are among the most common professions in which vehicle accidents result in serious and deadly workplace injuries:
- Long-haul trucking;
- Delivery services, from UPS to Amazon to others;
- Emergency medical services workers;
- Firefighters;
- Law enforcement officers;
- Oil and gas extraction workers;
- Construction workers; and
- Taxi or rideshare drivers.
Seeking Workers’ Compensation Benefits After Injury in a Motor Vehicle Collision
To be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits after sustaining injuries in a car or truck collision, you will need to show that the injury arose out of and occurred in the course of employment.
In addition, you may be able to file a third-party lawsuit — a personal injury lawsuit — against a third party who caused the accident. These types of civil lawsuits are common when a worker is injured because of another motorist’s negligence on the road, someone unrelated to their work.
Contact a Maryland Workers’ Compensation Attorney for Assistance with Your Benefits
Were you injured in a motor vehicle collision while you were at work or while you were performing job-related duties? If so, you could be eligible to obtain workers’ compensation benefits. As we explained above, determining eligibility for workers’ compensation benefits in the aftermath of a motor vehicle collision can sometimes be complicated since a worker is not eligible for coverage when a crash happens en route to work or while traveling home from work. However, when injuries from a car or truck accident arise out of and occur in the course of employment, you should reach out to an experienced Maryland workers’ compensation lawyer at the Law Offices of Steinhardt, Siskind and Lieberman, LLC today for help obtaining the benefits you need. Contact us for more information.
Source:
cdc.gov/niosh/motor-vehicle/about/index.html
