If you’ve been following our blog or are somewhat familiar with the traffic laws, you are likely aware that Minnesota is a No Fault state when it comes to traffic accidents. That means that for the most part, your own automobile insurance provider will handle the claim if you are involved in a collision with injury or property damage. But what happens if you are working at the time of your traffic accident? Will you still file through your own automobile insurance provider, or will you be able to collect workers’ compensation? We take a closer look at when you would be eligible to collect workers’ compensation after a car accident.
Work Comp And Car Accidents
If you are injured in a car accident, a few factors will help to determine whether or not you’ll be considering a personal injury claim or a workers’ compensation claim. There are a number of different special circumstances that can apply to your situation, but for the most part, if you are on the clock and/or performing company duties at the time of your accident, you will likely be filing a workers’ compensation claim. If you deliver packages or drive a truck for a living and are involved in an accident during the course of your duties, you will likely collect compensation through a workers’ compensation claim.
Before we get into some of the special circumstances, we want to touch on what’s known as the “Coming and Going” rule in Minnesota. The Coming and Going rule states that an individual is typically not protected by workers’ compensation insurance on their commute to and from work. Although the only reason you are driving at the moment is due to your employment, in the vast majority of cases, your work comp protections do not start until you are on company grounds and performing job-related tasks.
Special Exceptions
Of course, there are a number of different exceptions that could render you eligible to collect workers’ compensation if you are involved in a car accident. If any of these factors apply, there’s a good chance that you have a legitimate claim to workers’ compensation:
- You were commuting between job sites.
- You were driving a company vehicle.
- Your job requires you to drive to multiple locations on a regular basis.
- You were performing a work-related task.
- You were traveling to a meeting, conference or business-related event.
As you might imagine, these exceptions open up a number of new potential avenues for compensation. For example, if you were picking up a lunch order that your boss made for the team or you were dropping off files at the office across town when the car accident occurred, you would be eligible for workers’ compensation even though the accident happened on your lunch break or outside of your normal work duties.
We handle both workers’ compensation and personal injury claims, and we can help figure out how to get you the largest claim possible depending on your specific circumstances. For more information about which type of claim you’ll be pursuing, or to talk to a lawyer about building your car accident injury claim, reach out to the team at Hey Workers today at (844) 439-9675.