Late last month, NBC Chicago reported on a Sunday afternoon accident involving several employees of a major airline who were hurt while traveling to their flight. Specifically, the employees were on a bus that was hit by a baggage cart. Six of the airline employees aboard the bus were transported to area hospitals for treatment of their injuries. The cause of the accident was still under investigation as of the NBC Chicago report. Airline employees who are injured in situations like this may have various avenues to seek compensation for the injuries they suffered. Anyone hurt in a situation like this should consult an Illinois aviation injury attorney about their legal options and potential compensation.
One example of a somewhat similar event took place in Philadelphia and was recently resolved by a state court in Pennsylvania. Betty, a flight attendant for a major airline, was headed home after her shift, which involved flying from Philadelphia to Miami and back. After the return flight, the flight attendant boarded a shuttle bus to ride back to the employee parking lot. While boarding the bus, Betty slipped and fell and seriously injured her left foot.
The flight attendant filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits. The key issue in her case was whether or not she qualified, under the law, as being on her “employer’s premises” when she fell aboard the bus. The flight attendant received her award of benefits, since the court concluded that the shuttle bus was integral to the airline’s business and that Betty’s presence on the bus was required by the nature of her job. These factors meant that the bus was a part of the “employer’s premises” for the purposes of workers’ compensation benefits.
While Betty’s accident took place in Pennsylvania, a flight attendant injured under similar circumstances here in Illinois could also have a case for an award of workers’ compensation benefits. Illinois has the rule of what’s called the “traveling employee.” In 2016, the Appellate Court ruled that a flight attendant who fell on a jet bridge while exiting her flight and who fell again at the customs counter qualified as a traveling employee and therefore was entitled to receive benefits. If you, as a worker, are hurt while engaged in travel that your employer should have found reasonable and foreseeable (like a flight attendant on an international flight walking down a jet bridge and walking up to a customs counter), you may be entitled to win your claim. Similarly, if it was reasonable and foreseeable that the airline employees at O’Hare would use a bus to get to their flights, they might have claims too.
Working as an airline employee carries with it its share of risks. Some are unavoidable, but others are often due to others’ negligence or misconduct. Whether your injury entitles you to seek an award of workers’ compensation or a judgment in a civil lawsuit, the experienced Chicago aviation injury attorneys at Katz, Friedman, Eisenstein, Johnson, Bareck & Bertuca can help you get all of the compensation that the law says you deserve. To set up a free case evaluation, contact us at 312-724-5846 or through our website.
More Blog Posts:
Runaway Beverage Carts and Safety in the Air, Chicago Injury Attorneys Blog, Oct. 23, 2017
An Illinois Truck Driver’s Pre-Existing Conditions Didn’t Stop Her From Proving Her Workplace Accident Caused Her ‘Condition of Ill-Being’, Chicago Injury Attorneys Blog, Oct. 16, 2017