A virtual ride-along for when travel-related injuries go on the 300 Log
To illustrate how OSHA’s injury recordkeeping rule applies to traveling workers, let’s take a virtual ride-along with an employee and evaluate whether injuries would be work-related at various points during the trip.
Our employee, Pat, will travel four hours to another city, meet with a client for lunch, then tour their warehouse. Pat will then check into a hotel for the night before driving home the next day. If you’re all packed, let’s hit the road!
Starting the trip
Pat leaves home in the morning and the route happens to go past the office. If Pat gets injured in a traffic accident before getting that far, is the injury work-related or is it excluded as a commute?
It would be work-related because Pat is not commuting. Pat is starting business travel “in the interests of the employer” per 1904.5(b)(6). An accident early in the trip does not change this. If Pat had been hospitalized, that could be reportable to OSHA, but only if the accident occurred in a construction work zone.
Meeting the client
Suppose that Pat arrived safely to meet the client for lunch at a restaurant. After parking and while walking across the lot, Pat slips and falls, suffering a laceration that needs several sutures. Is this injury work-related?
Yes, it would be work-related. At the time of the injury, Pat was “present as a condition of employment” per 1904.5(b)(1) and therefore in the work environment. Pat was still traveling “in the interests of the employer” at that point.
Maybe the fall caused only a minor scratch and the lunch meeting goes well. However, Pat starts choking on a bite of food. The client performs abdominal thrusts but Pat briefly passes out from lack of air. Is this loss of consciousness work-related?
No, because OSHA provides an exception when employees are eating, drinking, or preparing food for personal consumption. Even though Pat is in the work environment, the food exception applies, just as it would in a company lunch room.
The next step is touring the client’s facility. Any injuries that occur in the client’s parking lot or during the tour would be work-related. As noted, Pat is in the work environment. For related information, see our article, Applying OSHA's geographic presumption for work-related injuries.
At the hotel
Upon checking into the hotel, Pat establishes a “home away from home” and, per 1904.5(b)(6), leaves the work environment. Any injuries that might occur from slipping in the hotel shower, pulling a muscle in the exercise room, or falling at the hotel pool would not be work-related.
Incidents at the hotel would be work-related only if they occur while performing work for pay and if they are directly related to performing work rather than to the hotel environment. Most incidents would likely result from the environment and would not be work-related.
Traveling home
The next morning, Pat leaves the hotel but stops at a mall to do some shopping. Any injuries that might occur at the mall would not be work-related. Per 1904.5(b)(6), if an employee takes a detour for personal reasons (sightseeing, visiting relatives, shopping, etc.) the employee is not traveling “in the interests of the employer” at that time.
However, an OSHA Letter of Interpretation dated February 12, 2015, clarified that stopping for gas or meals is not a personal detour. Even if Pat stopped to fill the tank only a mile from home, Pat was still on travel status. That letter noted, “Travel status ends once the employee returns to the point of origin of the trip, in your scenario the employee’s home.” Pat could incur work-related travel injuries until arriving home.
Key to remember: Employees who travel for work are in the work environment and could get work-related injuries, except when on personal detours or while at a hotel.