Are These Common Accidents Covered by Workers’ Compensation?
No one wants to get injured, and getting injured at work can be a huge hassle. Luckily, if you do get injured at work, you may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim. If you would like to learn more, keep reading to see if these four common accidents are covered by workers’ compensation.
Slip and Falls
Slip and fall injuries are so common that over 25 percent of injures (that resulted in missed work) were caused by slip and falls, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. Anyone can slip and fall at any job, but it is more common with people who work up high like roofers and tree-trimmers. In other situations, slip and falls are often the result of poor building management, such as broken stairs, holes in the floor, or poor lighting.
Because the cause is often accidental, slip and falls are nearly always covered by workers’ compensation. Even if you ignored a warning sign that said, “wet floor,” and you slipped, you can still file a claim. With workers’ compensation, you don’t have to prove fault like you do with other types of litigation.
Falling Objects
If you work in a lumberyard, warehouse, construction site, or anything else with overhead equipment or materials, you may be at risk for falling objects. In most cases, falling objects are the result of improperly secured materials, which allows them to fall.
Falling objects can range from light to extremely heavy. As a result, the injuries you sustain may be as light as a bruise or as severe as a brain injury, concussion, or paralysis. For this reason, injuries sustained from falling objects can become costly, lifelong expenses. Luckily, even if you were the one who improperly secured the materials that caused your injury, workers’ compensation will usually cover you.
Muscle Strains
Many jobs strain your body. Perhaps you have to lift a lot of heavy items or repeat the same motion constantly. Both can lead to muscle strain, making it hard or nearly impossible to do your job. When a strain develops, it creates micro-tears in the muscle where it connects to the tendon. This causes the muscle to pull away from the tendon, preventing you from being able to move the joint properly.
Muscle strains can be covered by workers’ compensation but proving your injury may be hard. Muscle strains are considered soft tissue damage, which is much harder to prove with X-rays and scans than hard tissue damage (broken bones). You also have to prove the strain, which likely happened overtime, was caused or aggravated by your work.
Auto Accidents
If you drive for work as a trucker or delivery person, you drive a lot while working. Naturally, because you are working, you are still covered under workers’ compensation. Therefore, if you are injured in an accident, you should be covered. However, if you were under the influence of alcohol or drugs or if you were breaking the law at the time of the accident, you won’t be covered.
If your job doesn’t involve driving, you may still be covered for an auto accident, depending on the situation. If you are commuting to or from work, no accident will likely be covered because you aren’t technically working. Similarly, if you leave at lunch to grab a bite to eat, you are not consider working. However, if your boss asks you to stop by the post office for a work task while you are out for lunch, you may have a case.
Getting injured at work is never fun, but as long as you were working at the time of the accident, workers’ compensation may provide medical and lost income benefits. If you would like to learn more, or if you need an attorney to help you fight for your workers’ compensation claim, contact us at Walz Law Office today.