If you look for news stories about on-the-job injuries, you tend to see the same types of accidents: construction workers who fall from a scaffolding or get caught in a trench collapse, factory workers who are hurt in an industrial accident, highway maintenance workers who are hit by cars, and so on. Still, there are accidents in all kinds of workplaces.
A recent news story concerned a Baltimore city employee who was injured after she encountered a bear while working near Prettyboy Reservoir. Emergency personnel rushed to the location after getting reports that the worker had been injured in a bear attack, but those reports were partly mistaken.
When emergency personnel arrived the injured worker told them that she had been walking in a wooded area when she came across a black bear. The startled animal charged at the woman, who fled. The bear quickly ran off into the brush, but in her haste to get away, the worker tripped, fell and suffered minor injuries.
No workplace injury is good, but clearly, this one could have been a lot worse.
A no-fault system
The bear story raises a question: If a worker is injured by an animal on the job, can the worker receive workers’ compensation benefits for the injury? The answer is, most likely, yes.
Maryland’s workers’ compensation benefits operate on a no-fault basis. If you’re injured on the job, you don’t have to prove that your employer or anyone else caused your accident in order for you to receive benefits. So long as the injury occurred in the course of your employment, your employer’s workers’ compensation insurance company should pay for your medical care. In the case of more serious injuries that require a longer period of recovery, you may also receive benefits to offset your loss in income while you are unable to work.