What happens if you’re in an accident while on the job?

Driving a company car, truck or van is a daily occurrence for many employees. As someone who drives as a part of their job, you’re at an increased risk to be involved in a motor vehicle accident simply by the fact you’re on the road a lot. So, what happens if you’re in a car accident while on the job?

If you’re involved in an automobile accident while on the job you have 2 types of legal claims available to you. The first is a workers’ compensation claim. In a nutshell, if you’re injured on the job workers comp is responsible for paying all your accident-related medical expenses. Moreover, they will also be obligated to pay you a portion of your average weekly wage while you’re out of work.

The second type of claim is a claim against the at-fault driver of the car accident, which is often known as a 3^rd party case. Further, if the at-fault driver does not have any insurance coverage or if your injuries and damages in the wreck exceed the insurance policy limits of the at-fault driver you can make also make a claim for uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage.

This raises an important issue to make sure you have sufficient uninsured motorist coverage. Uninsured motorist coverage is required under Alabama law; however, the named insured can reject this coverage by signing a written waiver. Sadly, many companies waive uninsured motorist coverage on their company vehicles to save money. As an unsuspecting employee, you have no idea if your company carriers uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage until you need it – then it may be too late.

Next Steps

We strongly encourage company drivers to check with their company to see if they carry UM and UIM coverage. While you likely cannot convince a company to add this coverage, you can then protect yourself by increasing your personal uninsured motorist coverage, which should likely cover you even though you’re in a company vehicle.