Was doing some reading in another thread and that prompted me to visit another site and read a couple story's about truck drivers that leads me to a couple questions.

If you are in a serious accident (single vehicle and your at fault), who pays the medical bills?

If a driver is killed 2000 miles from home, how does the body get returned home and who is responsible for that bill?

 

I would think you would be responsible.

In the case of death your family would be responsible.

kc0iv

 

serious injury while on the job: worker's comp.( that's why your employer pays into this) reguardless of fault

if, your killed in accident-- upfront, your family would get the bill from the Local funeral home for preparing, transporting your body back home....hopefully, you work for company which pays some sort of free Life
Insurance benefit coverage for it's drivers....and hopefully for your family --you have a policy as well.

 

Anytime you are involved in an auto or truck related accident there is insurance attached to the auto liability policy which takes care of medical bills. If that runs out your medical insurance should kick in to pay the remainder. If you have an APP, OPP or workers comp policy, it may also kick in to pay some of the medical bills or pay you a fixed amount of money each week. I don't think the workers comp policy would pay until the medical benefits portion of your auto policy was exhausted. If you are killed or otherwise died while out of town, it would be your estate or family that would be responsible for taking care of the costs relate to transporting the body. If you have life insurance, that could be used to pay for moving your remains back home. If this is something that concerns you perhaps you should make sure that you have adequate levels of health and life insurance. Some companies offer this to employees, but it is ultimately up to you to see that you have enough insurance.

 

I had a friend who had a brother killed in another state and he said there were permits they had to buy for every state line they crossed with the body because it was classified as hazardous material. The family couldn't afford to pay for all that so he had to be cremated in the state he was killed in.

Anyone ever heard anything like that? Sounded a little far out there for me to believe. I would think if a funeral home went for the body thats all you would have to pay for is mileage for the funeral home. If it was a long way I would think you would pay a local funeral home for the embalming and a plane ticket.

 

When my Mother inlaw passed away last summer in Florida we paid $550.00 to have her flown back to Detroit Metro. That included the Funeral home picking her up at the airport.

 

Interesting since this just happen to me...

I think that if I had died it would have been a pain for my wife to get my body home. I am assuming my body would be transported home since it would still fall under workmans comp. But then again... if I had been ran over walking through The TA lot going to take a shower, would the company argue its a not work comp? :shock:

Now think about this....

Your in a wreck, taken to the hospital your shirt is cut off of you and your treated for your wounds. Your released from the ER then what? You don't have clothing, you can't get to your truck since it's on the side of the road on it's side with all your clothing, food, cell phone, tooth brush, wallet etc...

You wait for a taxi and your damn lucky the cops had found your wallet in the truck and brought it to you. Now you need to get to an ATM to pay the taxi fare... What about a place to stay, get to the nearest hotel and hope your company who told you to get a hotel pays you for it later. Next morning your hurtin' real bad, couldn't sleep because you were still wired from the wreck, replayed it a bunch of times and your sore as hell. Not to mention the bed is big, comfortable, it's quiet and nothing like the truck. :wink:

Now you start making phone calls trying to find out what needs to be done but your told to wait...day one, then day two, then day three before anyone can make a decession. :?
During this time your alone in the hotel with nothing to do but re hash what you had gone through and worry to see if you have a job, then how your to get home with all your stuff you had pulled out of your totaled truck in the tow yard. :sad:

I think that was the most scary part of my ordeal yet to date. But then communication and a pretty good company makes it better.

As far as pay.... It's Workmans Compensation matter... if your a company driver.
I would have hate to imagine what I would've had to deal with if I was O/O. :cry:

Now if your told to get better....you wait. Now your playing the wait for the state to pay you for time off. for me, the worse part is having to wait for an appointment to get in for an MRI to be done to clear me of possible injury not caught on X-ray during the ER visit.

I did find a web site that has a bus which comes and picks up a CDL A drivers from a hospital and takes them home. They were a 48 state operation and worked off of donations If I remember right.

Best of luck all, remember to wear your seat belt and keep both hands on the wheel.

 

My husband died of a heart attack last year. Our company was kind enough to give me the money to return him home. The funeral home in Kingman, AZ wanted cash, and only cash to release him.

 

If anyone is curious, the pictures of my truck after the wreck are posted on Devildices thread "Highseas to Highway".

 

If you are a company driver well the companies insurance will pick it up, however what you sacrifice is prison time, lose of CDL etc. DOT can fine you any fines for running over your 11,14, 70 or falsifying your logs that was found within the last "6 months" of the accident (definately the last 30 days will be reviewed but many times, 6 months)

How the body gets home, not sure about that, however if a law suit and the plaintiff wins the defendandt will be responsible in my humble opinion, because they are responsible for all court cost etc.

So the best thing is don't put your self in this situation and if you are in this situation enlighten some of these drivers who feel nothing will go wrong with the fact they are running illegal and that accidents can't happen to those who "know when they are tired".

I just stress this for the drivers own good, I suffer nothing for you running illegal or doing what you should not do! I just try to make sure the "new" driver understands what can happen if they run illegal.