In a recent standard interpretation dated June 12, 2024, OSHA clarified the circumstances when a motor vehicle injury and fatality would be considered work-related. In doing so, OSHA restated the general principle that injuries that occur when an employee is on travel status are work-related, if, at the time of the injury, the employee was engaged in work activities “in the interest of the employer.” OSHA continued by providing examples of such activities to include travel to and from customer contacts, conducting job tasks, and entertaining or being entertained to transact, discuss, or promote business with the caveat that work-related entertainment only includes entertainment activities engaged in at the direction of the employer.

OSHA noted the regulations contain two exceptions for injuries sustained by employees travelling in the interest of the employer. The first provides that when an employee checks into a hotel or other temporary residence, the employee is considered to have established a “home away from home.” In this scenario, the employee is treated as if he is essentially at “home,” i.e., when the employee arrives at the hotel, s/he has left the work environment and work activities are evaluated in the same manner as a non-traveling employee. Accordingly, motor vehicle injuries sustained while traveling from the hotel to a fixed worksite each day would not be work-related as it would be treated the same as “normal commuting” between the employee’s home and place of work.

The second exception is when an employee is on a personal detour from the route of business travel. This would permit an employer to exclude injuries from the OSHA 300 log that occur when the employee takes a side trip for personal reasons while on a business trip, e.g., vacation, visiting relatives or some other personal reason.

After reciting these principles, OSHA concluded that a motor vehicle fatality was work-related under the following circumstances. The employee left his home, travelled approximately 300 miles to a customer site and checked into a hotel. After several days, work activities were completed. The employee left the hotel and travelled to a relative’s home and then stayed overnight at another hotel and resumed his trip back home using the same route he would have taken had he not stopped to visit his relative. On the way home, his vehicle tragically slid on an icy road resulting in an accident that fatally injured the employee. Under these facts, OSHA determined that the employee was still in the process of traveling home from a work assignment approximately 300 miles away, unlike a normal commute, which typically involves one trip home to work and from work to home each day. Accordingly, the ordinary commuting rule did not apply as the travel was outside the employee’s normal geographic area. At the time of the accident, the employee was also not on a personal detour from the route of business travel and was not traveling to and from a hotel to a permanent worksite. Instead, the employee had resumed his direct route of travel back to his home from the work assignment when the accident occurred, thus, it was considered work-related.