You commute to and from work every day, and it makes up the bulk of your weekly driving. Even if your commute is only a half hour to the office, you’re still spending five hours on the road every week. This means you face a significant amount of exposure to car accident risks.
But what happens if you get involved in an accident during your commute and you suffer injuries? You can’t go to work like you were planning, so you’re losing wages. You also have to pay medical bills to get treatment for your injuries. Since all of this was due to your commute, does that mean you may qualify for workers’ comp benefits to cover the costs?
Commuting car accidents are usually excluded
Car accident injuries are a common reason why workers seek compensation benefits. Car crashes are one of the main injury risks for truck drivers, delivery drivers, cab drivers, road construction workers and many others.
But when the accident happens plays a big role. Generally, you only qualify for workers’ compensation benefits as long as you are clocked in and performing your job. This means that commuting to and from work is excluded. If you crash on the way to work in the morning, you haven’t clocked in yet so you cannot seek workers’ compensation benefits. The accident happened on personal time.
There are some exceptions or ways that this can change. Perhaps your boss asked you to perform a work-related task during your commute, like stopping by the store to pick up supplies. If so, then you may qualify because you were doing your job, even if you hadn’t technically clocked in yet.
In other words, this can be a rather complex situation, so be sure you know what legal options you have.