Common Traveling Employee Injury Scenarios: What’s Covered & What’s Not?
Traveling Employee or Not?
Does your job require you to travel between one or more locations to perform your work? For example, you are a school nurse who must travel to four separate schools throughout the week to provide care to students. Or, you are a construction worker who has to drive from your home to a different job site each day. Another example would be an HVAC technician or plumber who must visit five different homes in a single day to perform repairs. If you're injured while traveling for your job, are you entitled to workers’ compensation benefits? Let's get into it.
Traveling Employee Defined:
In Illinois, a travelling employee is any employee who is required as part of their job to travel, by any means, away from the employer’s premise. Somebody who reports to the same location for work every single day, and that location is owned and controlled by the employer, is not a traveling employee. But, if you have to report to a location that's not your employer’s location or you have to travel between multiple sites owned by the employer, you are a traveling employee in Illinois. And if you are injured while traveling, the employer is liable if the injury is reasonable and foreseeable.
Mode of Transportation Is Irrelevant
It does not matter if the travel is on foot, bus, car, plane, or any other mode of transportation. If you work in downtown Chicago and you must travel on foot from one storefront to a location two blocks away, you're a traveling employee. If you have to fly on an airplane from one state to another, you are a traveling employee. If you have to get on a bus or drive a car while you travel, you are likely a traveling employee.
It does not matter if you're driving your personal vehicle, a company vehicle or a coworker's vehicle. If your job requires you to travel between locations owned by the employer or two locations not owned by the employer, you're a traveling employee.
Compensation for Travel May Be Irrelevant
It does not matter if you're paid mileage expense for the travel. If your job requires you to travel, you're a traveling employee. It does not matter if you're compensated hourly for your travel time. If your job requires you to travel away from your employer's premise, you're a traveling employee.
What’s Covered and What’s Not?
So, what types of accidents or injuries are compensable? Under Illinois law, if you're a traveling employee and you are injured on the job, the court looks at whether the injury was reasonable and foreseeable. If it was, your employer is liable under the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Act. The most common example occurs if you’re hit by another vehicle while traveling by car. That's a compensable injury. If a deer runs out in front of you and you swerve into the ditch and are injured, that's a compensable injury. But, what happens if you fall asleep at the wheel? Is that still compensable? In most cases, it likely is still compensable. What if you were speeding at the time of the injury? Is it still compensable? Yes, so long as your speeding was foreseeable and not unreasonable.
What happens if you trip on the carpet while boarding the plane? Is that compensable? Yes, it is. What happens if while traveling you eat a meal and develop food poisoning? You've likely suffered a compensable work injury. What if you're on a job site and you're attacked by the homeowner’s dog? That's a compensable injury. What if you step onto the homeowner’s porch and fall off? That's likely a compensable injury too.
You Need an Attorney Who Will Fight the Insurance Company
These types of cases are almost always denied by the insurance company. Insurance companies do not want to pay you, and they will do everything they can to avoid it. But, if you're a traveling employee and you're injured while doing your job, so long as that activity was reasonable and foreseeable, you're likely entitled to benefits.
You will need an experienced attorney to help you navigate the process. An attorney that is not afraid to fight the insurance company. You will need an attorney who has a proven track record of trying cases and going on appeal all the way to the Illinois Supreme Court, if necessary. You need an attorney who will fight and win.
At Black & Jones, we fight to win. We have fought this battle, and we have prevailed. Contact us today at (815) 967-9000 for a free consultation to find out if you have a compensable injury and what benefits you are entitled to.