Suffering an injury on the job can make you worry about how you will pay for your medical bills. If you carry out the proper steps to secure workers’ compensation, you should feel at ease that your employer’s insurer will cover your injuries. You might help your case if you find that one of your fellow workers witnessed your injury.
There is no guarantee that your employer’s insurance carrier will cover your medical bills even if you have followed the steps to report your injury. It may make a difference if a witness confirms your account.
Witnesses may file an incident report
You may file an incident report to notify your employer about your injury. An incident report should include information that provides context to your injury, such as the events that led up to the incident, as well as a description of how your injury had occurred. Your report might also detail whether or not other co-workers were present during your injury.
According to Indeed, a worker can file an incident report even if he or she was only a witness to an event and not a participant. Having a separate report from another worker on file in addition to your own account may help confirm your report of what happened.
Seeking out witnesses
If you remember that there were other workers around you at the time of your injury, you may want to see if one or more of them will file a report about your accident. Be careful who you approach. You do not want to accidentally motivate a worker who may hold a grudge against you to file a report contradicting your account.
If you want to secure the help of one or more witnesses, you should do it as quickly as possible. Keep in mind that employers should receive incident reports soon after the incident has occurred, so reports that come in late may be of no help to you. Your witnesses may also give you support if you decide to take legal action in the event your employer’s insurer denies your claim.
