Car accidents happen day in and day out, with no sign of stopping. In fact, in recent years, the number of significant car accidents has actually gone up. They are a very real injury risk for most Americans and are the leading cause of death for teen drivers.
If you get injured in a car accident, that certainly may mean that you have to take time off work. Say that you do manual labor, but you break your legs in an accident, so you are out of work for months. Is it possible for you to seek workers’ comp benefits at this time?
It depends on the specifics of the accident
It may be. In some situations, driving is part of your job, such as if you are a delivery driver or a commercial truck driver. As such, you can certainly seek workers’ comp benefits if you are on the job when you get involved in a crash. It is one of the injury risks that you face.
However, if you are just commuting to work when you get into the accident, then you likely cannot seek workers’ comp benefits. You may argue that you were driving to work, so you should be eligible, but you were not yet on the clock or performing any duties that were related to your job, so you may not qualify.
But even this can get complex. Say that your boss asks you to pick up a box of supplies on the way into the office. If you do that, then you could argue that your commute is actually part of your job because you were performing those duties at the time, so you should deserve workers’ comp benefits, even though you had not yet arrived at the office.
Exploring your options
Workers’ comp can help to cover a portion of your wages, your medical bills and other such costs. It is very important to understand all of your legal options after an injury.