My dad was injured on the job a month ago. He’s been in workers comp since then (more below on that) and was just told that he was being fired and stripped of his medical insurance the same day. This after being with his company ‘a couple months shy of 38 years’ as a truck driver—38 years with a perfect driving record until a month ago (almost to date) when he hit black ice on the highway during a massive snow storm and overturned his tanker in a ditch. He was lucky to walk away alive with only a punctured lung and torn rotator cuff.
As I said above, he’s been on worker’s comp, but only after having to deal with getting the toxicology report from the first hospital that he was sent to after the accident; they pumped him up with oxycodone on the way to the hospital and it came back in his blood stream over a week later.
According to his company and based on the police report (more on this below) & Google maps, the accident could have been avoided. Ya…right. To add insult to injury, he has now lost his CDL license and is in danger of losing his drivers license all together. The company said that due to the cost of repairing the tanker, the cost/time it took for hauling it out of the ditch and the cost of the cleanup from what he was carrying in his tanker, they have every right in their (I guess you can call it) contract to fire him.
They told him also (it just gets worse) that after he’s off workers comp, he can “reapply for a different position”.
The police report indicated that the accident was due to medical condition. How did that get on there, you ask? When the police ran his license, they apparently were able to find out through the DMV that he had a medical condition. 10 years ago he was diagnosed with diabetes, but chose not to be on insulin. I guess having a CDL license requires you to divulge any medical conditions? But there’s more.
The shoulder that he injured last month in the accident was injured 4 years ago on a separate accident on the job (non-driving) while pulling a hose (think fire truck-sized hose) from his truck. It the got re-injured again 4 months later during a PT session after he had surgery. When he finally went back to work, they had him doing desk work at the plant on the computer until he was cleared to drive again.
I feel that given his previous shoulder injury, he shouldn’t have been cleared to drive again. The whole thing is a slap in the face and my parents are working with a lawyer to see if there is anything they can do for him to get back with the company. But it told my mom that since they now get Medicaid since she works P/T and his workers comp is not considered income, they shouldn’t push getting him back to work. They are both in their 60’s and given my dad’s health issues, I wish he could retire now.
If anyone has a similar experience and can share some advice, it would be greatly welcomed.
TLTR: my dad was fired after 38 years with a perfect driving record after overturning his tanker on black ice…he also loses his health insurance.