Commuting injuries: when the journey to work counts

Many people take it for granted that an accident on the road, outside working hours and outside the company, is a private matter. Often it isn't: the journey between home and work is considered part of the risk of the job, and an injury that happens there can have the same protection as one on the shop floor.

It doesn't apply automatically, though. What matters is the route and the reason you were there.

What is usually covered

The protection covers the journey to and from home and the workplace. Other trips linked to work follow the same logic: those between two sites or two building sites on the same day, and the one to where you eat when the company has no canteen.

The common thread is that you are travelling for work, not for yourself.

The route must be the normal one

That doesn't mean the shortest possible, but the reasonable one given the circumstances: traffic, roadworks, timetables, the road everyone takes.

The difficulties come with detours and stops. The distinction that matters is between what is necessary and what is personal:

• a stop required by law or by the circumstances, or for essential needs that can't be put off, as a rule does not interrupt the protection
• a detour for an errand of your own, a personal commitment or to give someone a lift, as a rule does

Your own car

It is the most frequent question. Using your own vehicle is covered when it is necessary: when there is no public transport, when it doesn't run at those hours, or when it would impose times and conditions that are unreasonable for your shift.

If instead the car is a convenience and a workable alternative existed, your position is weaker. It is worth really reconstructing the public transport timetable on that route, at that time of day: it is a concrete element, and it often decides the case.

What excludes the protection

Behaviour that adds a risk unrelated to work is left out. Driving while impaired is the typical case, and it has consequences beyond insurance.

Ordinary carelessness, on the other hand, is a different matter: it is part of the normal risk of being on the road.

What to gather

1. the police report, if the police attended
2. the exact time you left or arrived, and your shift that day
3. your usual route, and the reason for any change that day
4. the public transport timetable on that route, if you were driving
5. the names of anyone who was there

If the claim was rejected

A rejection doesn't necessarily close the matter: many challenges concern precisely the route or the stop, and they are assessments that can be argued with the right evidence.

If you have received a refusal, it is worth having it read before you treat it as final.