An appeals court in Pennsylvania upheld an arbitrator’s award of benefits to a corrections officer for his injuries from crashing his patrol vehicle when he fell asleep behind the wheel while on duty.
Justin Kerschner works for the Department of Corrections and is a member of the bargaining unit known as the Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, which has an agreement that calls for arbitration under the Heart and Lung Act, a workers compensation alternative for officers, according to Department of Corrections v. Pennsylvania State Corrections Officers Association, filed Wednesday in the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Kerschner suffered injuries when he fell asleep behind the wheel of his patrol vehicle during a mandatory overtime shift and crashed into a garage. His claim for HLA benefits, which the department denied, asserted that he was not injured “in the performance of his duties.”
His employer reasoned he fell asleep while driving and thus could not have been “in the performance of his duties” because sleeping on the job is expressly prohibited. An arbitrator disagreed, awarding benefits.
The appeals court also ruled in favor of Mr. Kerschner, stating he was indisputably “on duty” at the time of his injuries, as he was performing the obligatory task of patrolling the perimeter of the prison that he was assigned to do, the court noted.
The accident was not the byproduct of “a willful intention by the employee to stop working and go to sleep,” so the arbitrator’s interpretation of the HLA’s “in the performance of his duties” requirement was reasonable and consistent, the ruling states.
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