The question: Do workers compensation laws need to be revised to exclude people who cause injury to themselves and others when driving distracted?
According to AOL News (10-4) an Illinois state trooper killed two teenage sisters in a high-speed, head-on collision. Ex-trooper Matt Mitchell filed a workers compensation claim for injuries he sustained in the fatal crash because he was on duty at the time. (WCxKit)
Allegedly Mitchell was e-mailing and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone when he lost control of his patrol car on his way to an emergency, traveling at 126 mph, jumped a median, and collided head-on into a car on the other side of the highway, killing Kelli Uhl, 18, and Jessica Uhl, 13. He pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and reckless driving.
Mitchell was on paid leave for two years until he resigned from the force after pleading guilty in criminal court. But during a civil suit, the former trooper denied any guilt.
Kimberly Schlau, mother of the dead teens, said "My daughters were killed by someone who was sworn to protect and serve them."
"This man has no character," Thomas Keefe, attorney for the parents of Kelli and Jessica Uhl, told AOL News today. Keefe said he was disgusted but not surprised that Matt Mitchell wanted money from the state. "To this day he has never said he's sorry. Not once. So what would you expect of such a person?"
"When [Mitchell] filed for benefits, I thought well, that's exactly what I would expect from a person who sat up on that stand and looked at that family and said, 'I'm not responsible for the death of your children,'" Keefe said. The attorney thinks it's likely that Mitchell will win the workers' compensation, since he was on the job at the time of the crash.
Attorney Ed Herman, spokesman for Mitchell, declined to comment specifically about the case. "The state of Illinois has a process for these claims, and we need to let the process play itself out without outside influence," he said.
Schlau has spent the past three years advocating for safer driving laws. She sometimes speaks to newly inducted state troopers about highway safety telling them about her daughters and asking them to remember their faces while they're driving and doing their jobs to make sure no other family has to go through what she and their father (Brian Uhl) have gone through. (WCxKit)
She said the law on workers' compensation may need to be changed as "It's just one more policy that's been pointed out to us that we might want to look at changing."
Author Rebecca Shafer, JD, President of Amaxx Risks Solutions, Inc. is a national expert in the field of workers compensation. She is a writer, speaker and website publisher. Her expertise is working with employers to reduce workers compensation costs, and her clients include airlines, healthcare, printing/publishing, pharmaceuticals, retail, hospitality and manufacturing. Contact: RShafer@ReduceYourWorkersComp.com
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SUBSCRIBE: Workers Comp Resource Center Newsletter
Do not use this information without independent verification. All state laws vary. You should consult with your insurance broker or agent about workers comp issues.
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