Broadly speaking, workers’ compensation insurance coverage provides benefits to everyone classified as an employee of the policyholder who gets hurt or sick while performing job-related duties. Importantly, this means that it is sometimes possible to claim workers’ comp benefits for accidents that occur while a covered worker is on shift at work but away from the job site where they normally perform most or all of their work-related tasks.
When it comes to applying workers’ comp coverage to a daily commute to and from work, though, things get a little more complicated. Here is a basic overview of how workers’ comp laws tend to approach this particular matter and what options you may—or may not—have to seek workers’ comp benefits for accidents occurring during work-related travel.
Understanding the “Coming and Going” Rule
Most states have what is known as a “coming and going”—or, as it is sometimes called, a “going and coming”—rule folded into their workers’ comp laws, which is built to address the question of whether workers are covered by workers’ comp when they are “coming from” or “going to” work. Generally, “coming and going” rules state that workers who get hurt while commuting to or from work are not covered by workers’ comp since they technically were not performing a work-related task or otherwise on shift at work when the accident occurred.
Of course, the primary exception to this rule is if “commuting” is a major part of a worker’s normal job duties—for example, if they often make deliveries between job sites by driving a company-owned motor vehicle on public roads. In that kind of scenario, a traffic accident while traveling from one work site to another generally would be covered by workers’ comp, since the trip itself is a work-related task rather than just a means of getting the worker to the place where they will later perform work-related tasks.
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When Is Work-Related Travel Covered by Workers’ Comp?
Other common exceptions to the “coming and going” rule for commute-related workers’ comp claims include:
- Commuting to or from a work site in an employer-owned vehicle rather than a personally owned vehicle
- Traveling to a work site or work-related event via commercial travel—for example, by bus, by train, or by commercial airplane
- Traveling between job sites in a personal or company-owned vehicle to perform job-related tasks at each site, after formally coming on shift at the first job site
- Traveling in order to perform a “special errand” while at work—for example, using a personal vehicle to go pick up take-out lunch orders for other employees in an office
In certain circumstances, you may be able to file a workers’ comp claim over an injury that occurred during a commute if the accident that caused the injury happened while you were still on employer-owned property. For example, if you got in a car crash in the parking lot of your office building while you were leaving to go home after a standard workday.
Get Help from a Seasoned Workers’ Comp Attorney with Injuries During a Commute
The question of whether commutes are covered under standard workers’ compensation laws can be a deceptively difficult one to answer, and the nature of that answer can change a lot depending on what state you live and work in. What is always consistent in situations like this, though, is how important it can be to have help from an experienced workers’ comp lawyer if you want to get the best result possible from your claim. Learn more by calling Shook & Stone today.
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