Why you should NEVER wait to report an injury / Intervening injuries
A lot of people wait to report injuries for a whole host of reasons:
*not wanting to appear weak
*thinking that the injury is “not that bad” or that it will heal on its own
*fear of retaliation from their employers/loss of their job
*there is no one around to fill out an injury report
I can understand why someone might want to wait to report an injury. BUT what many people don’t realize, until it is too late, is that the Insurance Company is not going to just take your word on anything. If you injure your neck at work and fail to report the injury and are then in a car accident on your way to the doctor’s office (even a minor fender bender), there is no documentation of your work injury and the insurance company may try to deny your entire claim. I also hear about people who “tweak” their arm or shoulder at work and then, while doing something non-work related (like playing basketball or doing chores around the yard) realize they truly are injured – the problem is – did the injury come from work OR the non-work related activity? If there is no documentation of the work injury it will be very hard to argue that your injury came from work and not somewhere else.
ALWAYS report your injury as soon as you are able!
