Can I Get Workers Compensation From My Commuting Crash?

Can I Get Workers Compensation From My Commuting Crash?

This will depend on the facts surrounding your Maryland accident and work situation. The general rule would have it that you cannot receive benefits from workers’ compensation insurance due to an injury sustained on your commute. As explained by Chesapeake Employers Insurance, and it is known as the “Going and Coming Rule” there are a few reasons for generally excluding commuting accidents from coverage.

Basis for the Going and Coming Rule

First, you are not actually at work when you are driving to work. You are not under any obligation to perform employment-related tasks and your employer is gaining nothing while you commute.

Furthermore, how you get to work is typically your decision and responsibility. Another rationale for the disallowance is that commuting dangers adhere to all workers, regardless of their occupation. Their job or employer does not add more risk to their driving on any particular day. Workers’ compensation insurance does not encompass covering common everyday dangers of life.

There are, however, very common exceptions to the no coverage rule.

The Premises Exception to the Going and Coming Rule

For instance, if you were not yet in the office, but still in the employer’s parking lot when the accident occurred, you may find coverage. This is so even though you have not yet arrived at your job, nor punched in.

This exception can even extend to you if you parked for work on property not owned by the employer. This extension, known as the Proximity Exception may be found if the employer instructed it's you, its employee, to park at a particular lot in order to get into work, even though you are not yet at work. At times, it can extend to other situations, if you suffered an injury on the way to your employer’s parking lot, but on property not controlled by the employer.

There are several other fact-specific exceptions to the commuting bar to workers compensation coverage for a car accident. As such, you will want to review them carefully, if you were in anyway traveling with a connection, however in direct, to or from work.

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