The Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) performs research and maintains data about every workers’ compensation claim in Washington State. In fact, its database of L&I claim information contains data from 2007 through 2020. The data captures each workplace accident type, body parts, and the nature of the injury. In addition, they store information about the source of the workplace injury, occupation, frequency, and risk classes. Interestingly, many work accidents involve trauma to the spine and surrounding muscles, bones, ligaments, joints, and tissues. Surprisingly, finger and hand work injuries are even more common than spinal injuries.

 

Hand work injury numbers and statistics

The US Bureau of Labor and Statistics published a fascinating study from 2017. In conclusion, finger and hand work accidents cause roughly 43% of all non-fatal work injuries whereby workers miss workdays. These incidents are most common in construction, woodworking, lumber and logging jobs. They are also very common among medical professionals and workers in mining, manufacturing, caregiving, janitorial jobs, and transportation jobs. However, in my experience, hand and finger injuries can occur in any profession. Even in some of the most sedentary jobs.

 

Workers’ compensation claim for hand or finger workplace injury

Sometimes, finger and hand accidents are simple. For example, small cuts or wounds that heal fast. They can also be far more severe and disabling. For instance, I’ve seen people lose a finger, multiple fingers, or their entire hand. Crushing injuries are also common. A severe crushing work injury can require surgical amputation of the finger or hand. They can also cause conditions like complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), which is extremely painful with unusual symptoms like hair loss and skin changes.

 

Hand and finger workplace injury in certain industries also carries risk of contracting secondary infections. Such infections include Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) or staph infection. The risk is particularly high in the medical and caregiving setting. In fact, the risk exists for any job with exposure to unsanitary conditions. Consider janitorial work or working with animals, for example. Needle stick work injury is common in these settings. Needle pricks or needle sticks work accidents carry increased risk of transmitting serious diseases like HIV, Hepatitis and Syphilis.

 

Hand injury in the L&I claim setting

These examples illustrate why there are so many finger and hand injuries at work. When the injury is simple and resolves easily, the L&I claim costs are low. Yet, for more severe accidents with potential secondary conditions or industrial diseases, the costs are much higher. According to L&I, workers under twenty-four years old have the highest risk for finger and hand injury at work.

 

Many workers use their hands and fingers in regular work activities all the time. Consequently, a severe hand injury or hand disease can cause total disability. For younger workers, the inability to use a hand or a finger can permanently damage the future of their work. Therefore, I applaud L&I for continuing its efforts to educate employers and workers about the danger and risk of finger and hand injury on the job.

The Industrial Insurance Act governs your workers’ compensation claim in Washington State. You can find this Act in Title 51 of the Revised Code of Washington (or RCW 51 in short). Under RCW 51, the goal is for the Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) to provide benefits to work injury claimants and their dependents. Medical and financial benefits are necessary after workers suffer an injury at work or become sick because of their work environment or workplace conditions. Special cases arise with L&I claim for truck drivers. This article tries to help truckers understand some of the issues.

 

Definition of employer and worker in L&I workers’ compensation claim

The law covers work injury and occupational illness that stem from almost any kind of employment in Washington State. In essence, the term “employer” refers to any person, persons (corporate or otherwise), and/or the legal representatives of a deceased person engaged in trade or business in Washington State.  Similarly, virtually every person working for an employer in Washington State is a “worker” under the law. However, despite these very broad definitions of “employer” and “worker”, there are still some exceptions to workplace injury coverage.

 

Washington State workers’ compensation coverage for truckers

Based on these exceptions, disputes can occur over whether there is Washington State coverage, as opposed to some other state or private insurance policy. In my experience, these kinds of disputes happen more frequently in certain professions and industries. On top, they happen when an employer does business in multiple states. Particularly, one industry where Washington State coverage disputes are more common is the Trucking industry.

 

Trucking is a big and important industry in Washington State. For example, companies like Swift Transportation, Reddaway, YRC Transportation, JB Hunt, CR England, and many others provide trucking services. As such, they employ truck driver personnel in Washington State. Yet, these companies also employ truck drivers in other states and internationally. The headquarters for these trucking companies is not in Washington State, even if they employ trucker drivers and other workers here.

 

L&I insurance coverage exemption for truck drivers and truckers

Under RCW 51.12.095, common or contract trucking carriers doing business in Washington State involving interstate and/or foreign commerce must cover their Washington State workers under L&I insurance. However, there is an exemption to this mandate. Back in 1987, the legislature amended the law to allow these kinds of employers to claim an exemption. Here, they are exempted from providing Washington State work injury coverage if they provide workers’ compensation insurance coverage under the laws of another state, which also covers employees in Washington State.

 

Regardless of the exemption, L&I almost always errs on the side of covering Washington State workers. In fact, if an employer thinks they are exempt from Washington State coverage, they can challenge L&I claim allowance and show they have coverage for the employee elsewhere. Recently, I’ve encountered a number of appeals involving this very specific issue. More specifically, it boils down to employer appeal to L&I claim allowance. Unfortunately, people that suffer an injury at work and face employer appeal to try and disallow their claim are often confused and scared.

 

Ensuring work injury insurance coverage for truckers in Washington State

After work injury, workers want to focus on recovery and getting back to work. These kind of employer appeals cause potential delays and stress. They are very frustrating. Nevertheless, the good news is that these disputes are generally easy to resolve. Still, the employer and L&I have attorneys that work on the dispute. Consequently, this leaves work injury claimants feeling that no one out there protects their interest and well-being.

 

Under these circumstances, I always think it’s a good idea for people with an L&I claim to at least consult with an experienced workers’ compensation attorney. At minimum, if you have a workers’ compensation claim, you must understand the process, procedure, and burdens under appeal. On top, you have to know the roles of various entities involved. It will help you reduce stress and decide if hiring an L&I attorney of your own is a good idea.

 

As a workers’ compensation attorney in Washington State, I often see L&I claims involving truck driver work injury. Also, I can attest that trucking work accidents can be severe and costly. In my experience, common occurrences of trucking work injury include slips, trips and falls. These workplace accidents happen in a variety of ways. Sometimes they involve getting in and out of the rig. Other times, they can involve a collision. In some cases, they happen while performing maintenance on the rig or some other activity. For example, securing load or putting up chains. Additionally, many trucking-related work injuries happen during loading, unloading, and moving loads.

 

Work injury in the trucking industry

An industrial injury is when a sudden and tangible incident results in physical harm requiring medical attention. From personal observations, industrial injuries in trucking are quite severe. Maybe it’s because most trucking work injury cases involve large rigs, heavy equipment, as well as heavy loads. More explicitly, I’ve seen examples of truckers’ workplace injury such as falling off loading ramps and docks. Other examples include getting hit by roll-up or swinging doors and slipping and falling getting in and out of the cab. Then, there are also work accident instances when truck drivers are lifting heavy items, or getting hit by freight. Finally, there’s also motor vehicle accidents involving trucks as well as forklift work accidents.

 

Obviously, trucking injuries can impact all parts of the body. After all, it’s an industry that is highly prone to work accidents and devastating injuries. In many incidents we see shoulder injuries, knee injuries, and also neck and low back work-related injuries. In more harsh cases, we also encounter traumatic brain injury (TBI) in trucking as well.

 

Occupational disease and industrial illness in trucking

Of course, L&I claim involving a truck driver might arise from an occupational disease. Specifically, occupational diseases (also known as industrial illness) are conditions caused by job activities. Moreover, these conditions may develop over time. In my experience, truckers are more likely to develop occupational illness on the job if they’ve been doing it a long time. They are also likely to develop an industrial disease when their job involves frequent, repetitive, and heavy lifting activity. Over the years, I’ve seen many trucking-related work diseases.

 

There are distinctive work activities that lead to an occupational disease for truckers. These conditions include repetitive jarring from poor shocks, poor seat design, or seat malfunction. On top, they include repetitive hooking or unhooking large and heavy hoses, repetitive climbing in and out of the cab for short haul routes and repetitive loading of large, heavy, awkward, and bulky freight. As a result, I’ve seen work injury claimants develop sprains and strains, shoulder tears, knee tears, herniated disks, and aggravate degenerative conditions like arthritis.

 

The impact of work injury on truckers

There’s no doubt that truck driving involves labor intensive activities. Many accidents happen with large trucks and heavy equipment. Therefore, trucking work injuries and occupational diseases can seriously impact the ability to work. In trucking, it’s particularly difficult to modify a job for light duty work activity. Consequently, in addition to the medical and other costs of the L&I claim, a trucking workers’ compensation claim is extremely costly for the work injury claimant. Too often, it can end a good career for injured truck drivers.

 

The L&I trucker safety initiative

The Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) created the Safety and Health Assessment and Research (SHARP) program. In essence, they designed the program to help improve workplace safety. SHARP maintains that workplace accidents result from preventable exposures. The L&I SHARP program, in partnership with funding from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) is studying occupational safety and health in the trucking industry. This project is called Trucking Injury Reduction Emphasis or TIRES. In fact, the TIRES program already covers a decade of research to prevent slips, trips, falls, strains and sprains, and getting struck by objects. Furthermore, L&I develops materials under the TIRES program to prevent common accidents.

 

L&I published certain statistics that relate to work injuries for truckers. In short, truck drivers and truckers are frequently prone to work injury and accidents on the job. Hence, the TIRES program is working hard to create a trucking-industry-specific safety program. For me, in trucking workers’ compensation claims, I pay special attention to the high price that work injury claimants incur. Therefore, all safety improvements that reduce trucking injury and disease occurrences is a worthwhile and blessed investment.