Chicago Work-related injury: a trip on a dip.
A worker was walking from her office to the bank to make a deposit for work. She turned to head up an inclined driveway, and tripped on a dip in the pavement and fell forward. She fractured both of her wrists while trying to break the fall.
Clearly this walk was job-related: she made this trip 2 or 3 times each week to deposit work checks. But the question for this case, which comes up frequently in Illinois workers’ compensation case, is whether the risk that caused this injury arose out of her employment? After all, she was on a Chicago city street where the general public walks every day. The dip in the driveway had nothing to do with her job or her purpose in walking up the driveway. Also, her fall was not related to some special personal condition she had, that made her prone to falls.
It was just a neutral situation—a random defect in a pavement that was not owned or maintained by her employer. So what would make this accident and injury arise out of her employment and therefore entitle her to workers’ compensation benefits?
An injury from an accident can become a work-injury where the risk that caused it is increased because of your job: either because your job changed the character of the risk from what the general public experiences, or because your job exposed you to the risk more often than the general public is exposed.
In the case of the worker walking the streets to the bank, she made that trip more frequently than someone would who was not working at her job. The risk of falling from a dip in a driveway was one that anyone going that way was exposed to. But because she was required by her job duties to make the walk by that dip several time each week, her risk of falling was larger than the general public because of the increased quantity.
Accidents on public streets can turn into work-related events where the public way becomes connected and affected by your job duties.
Bottom line is that every injury should be investigated to see if it’s covered under Illinois laws. Some are, some aren’t; you just need to find out what the truth is for your claim.
We are workers' compensation attorneys that help people with Illinois work injuries anywhere in IL via our statewide network of attorneys. Contact us and we will answer your questions or find the right lawyer for your situation.
