I Was Injured in a Work-Related Car Accident

Individuals operate vehicles for a variety of reasons at work. In some cases, everyday activities at a job involve a vehicle. Other times, individuals rarely get in a vehicle for work, but it does sometimes happen, even if they just run a few errands. Here, we want to discuss what you can do if you are injured in a car accident while carrying out job-related duties.

What the Data Tells Us

Individuals often end up inside a vehicle, either as a driver or a passenger, during their work hours. This is obviously true for those who rely on their vehicle for their job functions, including truck drivers, delivery drivers, taxi drivers, etc. However, even those whose job-related duties do not involve a vehicle could end up inside of a vehicle for various reasons. This could include individuals running errands for their place of business, traveling to another office across town, going on a business trip, and more.

According to data available from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), work-related motor vehicle accidents are amongst the first or second leading causes of death in every major industry in the country. Additionally, the CDC states that 56% of workers who died in a motor vehicle collision during a recent reporting year were not employed in motor vehicle operator jobs.

Will You be Able to Recover Compensation?

Anyone who sustains a workplace injury in Oregon should be able to recover workers’ compensation benefits. This should include complete payment of all medical bills related to the injury and a significant portion of lost wages. Additionally, those who are unable to work for longer periods of time should be able to receive some type of disability payment.

We know that receiving workers’ compensation benefits for a vehicle accident can seem strange. Your first thought may be that you will recover compensation from the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier. However, just about every employer in Oregon is required to carry workers’ compensation insurance, and this is usually the only route that workers have to recover compensation after a work-related injury. This is a no-fault system, which means workers can recover compensation regardless of who caused the vehicle accident, so long as they were carrying out job-related duties at the time the incident occurred.

The workers’ compensation insurance carrier, the employer’s vehicle insurance carrier, and the insurance carrier of any other party involved will be responsible for determining who pays who, but you should receive compensation through the workers’ compensation insurance claim.

However, if the incident was caused by a third party aside from your employer or yourself, you may be able to file a civil personal injury lawsuit against the at-fault driver. This puts the case in the civil court system and may allow you to recover additional types of compensation above and beyond what you are able to recover through workers’ compensation insurance, including pain and suffering damages.

We strongly encourage you to work with a skilled Portland personal injury lawyer who has experience handling work-related motor vehicle accident claims so that you can recover maximum compensation for your losses.