If you’re driving for work, then it counts as a work activity. If you get involved in a car accident, you may be eligible for workers’ comp benefits.
For example, say that you work as a window installer. Every day, you drive to the central office location and meet up with your team. You then drive to the location where you’re doing the installation and begin working.
If you were to get into an accident on the way to the office, you would not be covered. But if you got into an accident on the way from the office to the job site, then you would be.
When would your commute be included?
The law is set up this way thanks to something called the going and coming rule. This basically just stipulates that your commute is ineligible because you are just going to work or back home at the end of the day, rather than actively doing your job.
But this means that there are some situations in which your commute should actually be included. For example, say that you need some extra tools for a certain job. Your boss tells you to pick them up on the way to the office in the morning. Since they have now given you a work-related duty to fulfill, you should be covered under workers’ comp laws, even though you haven’t yet arrived at the office or clocked in.
As you can imagine, this can get fairly complex, especially if there is a dispute between you and your employer about whether or not you are eligible for workers’ comp benefits. You need to know exactly what legal steps you can take after an injury on the job.