Worker Comp for Car Accident Injury – Kansas City Work Accident Lawyer

Contrary to a common misconception, workers’ compensation not only pays for injuries that occur at your place of employment, it may also pay for injuries resulting from a work-related car accident.

In fact, injuries from car accidents account for a large percentage of workers’ compensation claims. In some cases, these injuries may lead to serious health conditions, complications and even death. Workers from a range of occupations are increasingly getting exposed to the risk of automobile accidents. For instance, clerks are highly susceptible to road accidents, says a study conducted by the National Council on Compensation Insurance (NCCI) in 2006.

An updated version of the study was released by the council in the last month of 2012. The latest study took recent data into account and made an attempt to find out whether injuries from road accidents are a leading cause of workers’ compensation claims involving multiple workers. According to the latest study, the number of road accidents declined sharply during the period of recession. The study also found that a road accident often results in workers’ compensation claims from more than one worker, and in most cases, the claims are made for serious or fatal injuries.

Driver Inattention Causes a Large Number of Road Accidents

The 2012 study by NCCI also concluded that a large number of road accidents and near accidents are caused by a driver’s inattention or distraction. Some drivers participate in activities like talking over phone, texting, eating, talking to fellow passengers, or even applying makeup while driving. This type distraction may lead to serious accidents. Road accidents resulting from driver distraction can be reduced to a large extent by encouraging the workers to follow safe driving rules and practices. Both the new study and the previous study by NCCI found the frequency and number of road accidents plummet. Moreover, the 2012 study further confirmed the cyclical characteristics of road accidents discovered by the 2006 study. The new study found that the number of road accidents involving workers declined sharply during the recession of 2007-08. In fact, the steepest fall was noticed in the number of road accidents involving large vehicles or SUVs.

Interestingly, there are more similarities between the two studies in terms of the types of workers’ compensation claims made by the workers for road accidents. For instance, in many cases, claims were made by someone other than the insured. In fact, road accidents account for over 50 percent of the claims with subrogation, according to the studies. This is because many road accidents cause serious injuries to the accident victims, including severe head injuries and neck injuries. These injuries often result in temporary or permanent disability and require long-term treatment.

Vehicle Type May Have an Impact on the Severity of Road Accidents

According to the 2012 study, passenger cars are more likely than the other types of vehicles to cause minor injuries from road accidents. It was also found that large vehicles like trucks or SUVs cause road accidents almost as frequently as passenger cars.