Injured While ‘Simply Walking’ Not Covered by Workers’ Compensation

Not all accidents are compensable merely because they happen at work, the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission (WCC) reminded in denying workers’ compensation benefits to a school bus driver for an injury that happened while he was simply walking from his bus to a restroom.

“Simple acts of walking, bending, reaching, or turning, without any work-related exertion or awkward contributing factors, are not considered to be risks of one’s employment,” the commission noted in upholding a deputy commissioner’s denial of benefits sought by the bus driver.

The bus driver was employed by Fairfax County, which argued the injury was not compensable. A deputy commissioner agreed, denying benefits while noting that every injured worker has the burden of showing that “the conditions of the workplace or some significant work related exertion caused the injury.”

The driver asked the WCC to review that decision but he fared no better.

There was no dispute that the bus driver was at work during his shift when he felt pain. On February 15, 2024, he drove his bus route, and part of the route was to a recreational center where he parked and then exited the bus to go use a bathroom. While walking to the bathroom, he felt severe pain in his left knee and foot and he could not walk. He needed help and assistance to get back to the bus.

The driver was forthcoming and said he did not know what caused the pain when first questioned. He acknowledged that he was “simply walking” at the time. On appeal, he wrote for the first time that his knee injury “happened over time” as he assisted heavy children on a daily basis.

A medical expert offered his opinion that the knee condition was not work related.

In upholding the deputy commissioner, the WCC said that the legislature did not intend “to make the employer an insurer against all accidental injuries” on the job. Instead, the employer is liable “only for such injuries arising from or growing out of the risks peculiar to the nature of the work, in the scope of the workman’s employment or incidental to such employment, and accidents to which the employee is exposed in a special degree by reason of such employment.”

The WCC further noted that the driver’s new allegation of a knee condition that “happened over time” would equally be non-compensable under the workers’ compensation statute because the evidence must demonstrate an identifiable incident that occurs at some reasonably definite time; an obvious sudden mechanical or structural change in the body; and a causal connection between the incident and bodily change.