Work Injuries To Delivery Drivers In Illinois

If you have bought anything from a store or had any purchases delivered to your home, you can thank a truck driver. Driving a truck requires skill and constant attention to the truck and the road, but even the most cautious drivers who manage to avoid accidents are still vulnerable to work injuries. Anyone who thinks that driving a truck just means sitting all day behind the wheel has never tried to drive one; it is a more physically demanding job than it looks.

Truck drivers who deliver items directly to residences, such as Amazon, FedEx, and UPS drivers, face a unique set of dangers. Not only does their work entail the risks inherent in driving a truck and unloading boxes from it, but these drivers must also face the hazards of delivering packages to people’s doors. Like all employees, delivery drivers are entitled to file workers’ compensation claims to get their work injuries paid for by their employers’ insurance. To find out more, contact a Chicago workers’ compensation lawyer.

Motor Vehicle Accidents

All jobs that involve driving carry some risk of getting injured in a collision. Common types of injuries that can result from car accidents in residential areas include whiplash injury, bone fractures, and concussions, among others. If you get injured in a car accident while driving a delivery truck, your injuries are compensable under Illinois workers’ compensation laws.

Accidental Falls

When it is snowing outside, no one wants to go out and walk on their icy driveway; therefore, instead of going to the supermarket, they have Amazon deliver their groceries. This means that the task of carrying the groceries up the slippery driveway and ice-covered stairs falls to the Amazon driver. Accidental falls are a risk at many different jobs; they can result in a variety of injuries, including bone fractures, back injuries, and lacerations.

Muscle Strain Injuries

Some of the packages delivered by FedEx, Amazon, and UPS are heavy. If you have ever lugged a heavy Amazon box from your porch to your foyer, multiply that by the length of your driveway, and you will know how much more work the Amazon driver has to exert to carry it, and that is just one package. Imagine how much lifting is involved in an Amazon driver’s workday. Muscle strain injuries resulting from heavy lifting are a common occurrence in delivery driver jobs.

Dog Attacks

Another injury risk that delivery drivers face is overzealous guard dogs. Most dogs are safely inside the house or the fenced in yard, and even if they are running loose, most of them are all bark and no bite. Despite this, dog bite injuries can happen to delivery drivers, and like all injuries that happen at work, they are compensable under Illinois workers’ compensation laws.

Contact a Workers’ Compensation Lawyer About Work Injuries at Delivery Driver Jobs

A workers’ compensation lawyer can help you get a fair workers’ comp settlement if you got injured while driving a delivery truck. Contact Connolly Injury Law in Chicago, Illinois or call or text 312-780-0816.

Source:

news.bloomberglaw.com/safety/culture-of-fear-grips-ups-workers-say-injuries-underreported