Summary: The issue to be determined is whether an employee sustains a work related accident if he is involved in an automobile accident while driving to an independent medical examination obtained at the employer’s request. While Vogel is not exactly on point, a review of this case would allow employers to argue that the automobile accident is not work related.

In Vogel, the employee sustained an undisputed accident while working for the employer on July 10, 1998. Subsequent to surgery, the employee testified he was doing fine until he was in an automobile accident while traveling to his first session of physical therapy for his work related claim. The employee went through physical therapy subsequent to the automobile accident but still was in pain. The treating physician noted the employee had a failed fusion and opined his problems were caused primarily by the automobile accident and not the work accident. However, the treating physician noted that at the time of the automobile accident, the employee’s cervical fusion was not yet solid. Subsequently, the employee was in two more automobile accidents. Vogel does not identify where the employee was traveling at the time of these two accidents. The employee complained of additional neck pain subsequent to these accidents. The employer then obtained an independent medical examination in which the doctor opined that the employee’s current condition was not a result of the subsequent automobile accidents.

The primary issue in Vogel was whether the employee’s three automobile accidents were intervening accidents that broke the chain of causation between the employee’s work accident and his current condition of ill-being. As noted above, the issue for the purpose of this memorandum is whether the first automobile accident (when the employee was driving to physical therapy for treatment related to the work accident) arose out of the employee’s employment. While the Court did not provide rationale, it noted that the employee’s automobile accidents were considered non-work related. Please note, while the Court found the automobile accidents to be non-work related, the Court noted that whether “other incidents, whether work-related or not, may have aggravated the claimant’s condition is irrelevant.” Therefore, in Vogel, the Court focused on the issue of causal connection in determining if the employee was entitled to benefits subsequent to the automobile accidents. The Court noted that while the automobile accidents aggravated the employee’s medical condition, the work accident was still a causative factor in his resulting condition. The Court explained that while the first automobile accident played a “major” role in the worsening of the employee’s condition, the physicians did not eliminate the undisputed work accident as a causative factor in the employee’s current condition of ill-being. The same analysis applied for the latter two automobile accidents. In conclusion, under Vogel, an employer can argue that an employee does not sustain a work related accident while driving to a doctor for treatment related to a work accident. The same argument can be made for an employer who is in an automobile accident while driving to an employer’s IME doctor. In either scenario, if the employee sustains injuries to new body parts as a result of the automobile accident, the employer can deny such an injury is work related. However, if the automobile injury aggravates the same condition caused by the work related claim, the employer will only be able to dispute further benefits if it obtains a medical opinion that states the employee’s current condition of ill-being is solely related to the automobile accident.