Workplace Accidents Caused By Drunk Drivers
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) reports that an average of 32 people are killed in road-related accidents each day in the United States, which averages out to approximately one drunk-driving-related death every 44 minutes. Many of those people who are injured or killed are workers — construction workers doing roadwork, delivery drivers, truck drivers, and landscapers. While people in these professions already face significant injury risks due to other work-related hazards, they can also be at risk of sustaining severe or deadly injuries when a drunk driver crashes into a construction area, causes a collision on a roadway, or plows into a residential property where landscaping is being done.
When a workplace accident is caused by a drunk driver, how can an injured worker seek compensation? Our Maryland workplace injury lawyers can provide you with more information.
Workers’ Compensation for Injuries Arising Out of and Occurring in the Course of Employment
Under Maryland workers’ compensation law, for an employee to be eligible for workers’ compensation after a work injury, they must be able to show that the injury arose out of and occurred in the course of their employment. Does this include intoxicated or otherwise impaired drivers?
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), as OSHA understands it, the term “work relatedness,” which is addressed under Section 1904.5 of OSHA’s recordkeeping rule, an employer “must consider an injury or illness to be work-related if an event or exposure in the work environment either caused or contributed to the resulted condition,” and that injuries or illnesses arise out of a person’s work is “presumed for injuries or illnesses resulting from events or exposures occurring in the work environment.” This can include certain types of job activities that place an employee at risk of injury from a drunk driver.
You should discuss the specifics of your case with a Maryland workers’ compensation lawyer who can help you to determine if your case meets the requirement for workers’ compensation benefits.
Filing a Third-Party Lawsuit Against the Drunk Driver
In addition to seeking workers’ compensation benefits, workers injured by drunk drivers can also often file third-party lawsuits.
Assuming the drunk driver was a third-party, and not a co-worker, you may be able to obtain compensation by filing a civil lawsuit against that party (or another party with deeper pockets who may be liable for the drunk driver’s negligence, such as an employer of the drunk driver).
Contact a Maryland Workers’ Compensation Attorney for Help with a Workplace Accident Caused by a Drunk Driver
Nobody should ever have to anticipate the possibility of a work injury due to a drunk driver. However, in addition to other workplace hazards that roadworkers, construction workers, and drivers face on a regular basis, such workers are also at risk of being injured by third-party intoxicated motorists. For all of the reasons we discussed above, you may be eligible to receive workers’ compensation benefits through the Maryland workers’ compensation system if you were injured by a drunk driver, and you also may be eligible to file a third-party lawsuit. To find out more about seeking compensation after a devastating accident caused by a drunk driver, you should reach out to the experienced Maryland workers’ compensation attorneys at the Law Offices of Steinhardt, Siskind and Lieberman, LLC. We can discuss the details of your case with you today, including your workers’ compensation eligibility and your right to file a personal injury lawsuit.
Source:
nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving
