“I was in a crash while working.”

Transportation incidents were the leading cause of California workplace fatalities in 2024, at 31%.

Do these today

Report it to your employer in writing, and file the DWC-1DWC-1 The claim form. Filing it starts the 90-day presumption and the $10,000 treatment obligation..

Get the police report number.

Photograph everything — vehicles, positions, the roadway, sight lines, weather, damage.

Get the other driver’s insurance and employer. If they were working, their employer is also a defendant.

Notify your own auto insurer, and check whether you carry uninsured or underinsured motorist coverage. Many people have it and forget.

And in a commercial vehicle case, send a preservation demand immediately. ELD records, dash camera footage, GPS, and the tractor’s engine control module are the best evidence in a trucking case — and they are routinely overwritten on a cycle measured in weeks.

Truck and delivery driver claims.

Was I covered if I was driving?

Ordinary commuting generally is not — the going-and-coming rule.

But the exceptions are real, and the most commonly available is the required vehicle exception: where the employer expressly or implicitly requires you to have your car available for work. That reaches home health aides, field technicians, outside sales, and construction workers carrying tools or crew. Mileage reimbursement is strong evidence the vehicle was required.

Also: a special errand, dual purpose, employer-provided transportation, being paid for travel time, and commercial travel.

And note what changed: in Zenith Insurance Co. v. WCABWCAB Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board. The court system that decides these cases. 23 district offices statewide. (Hernandez) (2025) 110 Cal.App.5th 1164, the Court of Appeal narrowed the special risk exception. The current state of the rule.

Two things that follow

The lien. The workers’ compensation carrier will assert a lien on your civil recovery for what it paid. Where the employer’s own negligence contributed, that lien can be reduced or eliminated — and how it is handled is frequently worth more than the difference between two settlement offers. How.

And a government defendant has a six-month deadline. If a dangerous roadway condition contributed, a claim must be presented to the public entity within six months — far shorter than anything else in this area.