The Indiana Department of Labor has found that more people in the State of Indiana are dying while working on the job – and that most of these deaths are related in some way to driving a vehicle on the job, where driving is part of the work. Whether driving a commercial vehicle (like a big rig, semi, tractor trailer, or delivery truck) or another type of vehicle, from cars and pickups to forklifts on construction sites, anyone driving as part of their job has an increased risk of being killed while working.
Especially if they are driving as part of their job on the highway.
According to the Indiana Department of Labor report, around a third of these worker fatalities happened as highway crashes. Similar findings exist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ federal reporting site.
Department of Labor Commissioner Lori Torres has stated that the increase in workplace fatalities “strongly suggests” that Indiana needs to do more to boost safety in the Indiana workplace.
Claims Under Indiana Law for Workplace Fatalities
For those employees who lose their lives while working on the job, Indiana law provides workers compensation as well as wrongful death laws for victims and their families of a fatal on the job work accident. The Indiana legislature has defined in the statutes not only the kind of monetary damages that are legally available in cases of wrongful death but also who can file a lawsuit against those responsible for this tragic loss of life. Widows, for example, can sue under the statute. Cousins? Maybe not.
When the death is on the job, there may be a legal overlap between the workers compensation statutes and the wrongful death laws. Indiana claims must be considered in view of both these sets of statutes as well as the past court opinions that have ruled on situations where someone in Indiana has died while doing their job at work. Legally, medical expenses, funeral costs, lost future earning capacity, and more should all be compensable damages to those who have lost their loved one in an Indiana workplace accident.
