The Short Answer
Most injuries that happen while you're commuting to or from work are not covered by workers' compensation in North Carolina. Whether your injury is compensable depends on four key factors: where the injury occurred, whether you were running an errand for your employer, whether you were traveling directly to a customer or job site, and whether your employer was responsible for your transportation. If any of these exceptions apply to your situation, you may have a valid workers' comp claim — but the rules are complicated enough that you should speak with an attorney before assuming you're not covered.
Generally, injuries sustained going to and from work are not compensable as a workers’ compensation injury. However, there are a few exceptions to this general rule. The following is a list of injuries that may be compensable under workers’ compensation.
First, if the injury occurred on the premises of the employer as the employee is arriving or leaving work, the injury may be compensable. A common example would be a person slipping on an icy spot as they step onto the employer’s parking lot as they arrive for work.
Next, if the employee is performing a “special errand” for the benefit of the employer. For example, the employer may ask the employee to stop by a paper goods store to pick up a case of copy paper on his way home after the employee has “clocked out,” and the employee is injured in an accident before they get to the store, but after they leave the employer’s premises, the injury will probably be compensable.
Another example is when the employee leaves their home, but instead of going directly to work, the employee must go by and see a customer of the employer. If an injury occurs driving directly to visit the customer, the injury is usually compensable. In the alternative, if the employee is a salesperson and in route to visit a customer and the employee decides to stop by a bar and have a few drinks and falls and injures himself in the bar, this injury is usually not compensable. This is commonly known as a “frolic and detour”.
A final example of a compensable injury is when an employer is responsible for carrying the employee to and from work as part of the employment contract. For example, the employer has agreed to pick up construction workers at their home and carry them to the construction site. Along the way to the construction site, the employee is injured in an automobile accident, this injury is usually compensable.
The workers’ compensation rules surrounding injuries that occur going to or from work are complicated; you should speak with a workers’ compensation attorney regarding the specifics of your situation to determine whether you may be able to file a workers’ compensation claim due to your injuries.
Key Takeaways
- Injuries on your employer's premises — including parking lots — as you arrive or leave for work can be compensable under workers' compensation.
- If your employer asks you to run a work-related errand before or after your shift, injuries during that errand may be covered even if you've already clocked out.
- Driving directly to visit a customer or job site on behalf of your employer is generally treated as work activity, making injuries along that route compensable.
- Detouring for a personal reason — such as stopping at a bar — can disqualify your claim under the "frolic and detour" rule, even if the original trip was work-related.
- When an employer provides transportation to and from a job site as part of your employment, injuries during that commute are typically covered.
- The line between a covered and non-covered commute injury is narrow, and small factual details can change the outcome of your entire claim.
Attorney Insight
The "frolic and detour" issue trips people up more than almost anything else in these cases — I've seen injured workers assume they're not covered because they weren't on the clock, when actually the employer-errand exception would have protected their claim entirely. The reverse is also true: someone will insist they were "on their way to a customer" without realizing that the unplanned stop they made first wiped out their coverage. In North Carolina, the factual details of exactly what you were doing and why matter enormously, and telling your story slightly differently to an adjuster versus to an attorney can mean the difference between a compensable claim and a denied one. Don't make that call alone.
