I wish him a speedy and full recovery. It is no joke, the results could have been worse.
A few years ago, when returning back from work, I was hit by a bus while crossing the road and had some of the similar injuries. Fortunately, the laws here (Belgium) are firm and it was considered as work related accident because it happened while I was returning from work. Stayed at the hospital for 3 weeks, and then stayed at home for about 1.5 more months for recovery.
I’m glad that you’re physically and personally okay, but that’s insane to me that an accident like that is anywhere even tangentially the workplace’s fault.
It's not about fault is it? It's about a level of care (which one can argue about). In this case the society says your work has a responsibility to provide for you in case of accident within certain parameters. He keeps his job, he is cared for and he continues to be useful to society. It's a not unreasonable approach.
The care should be provided by the company operating the bus because they caused the harm, I don’t think it’s the workplace’s responsibility to accept liability for an employee outside of when they are acting on behalf of the employer.
That just seems like an ideological divide between Belgium’s lawmakers and I, which is fine - I don’t live there and they’re welcome to do what works for their country.
Being a work related accident does not mean the company I work for payed for everything. It just means they took responsibility of handling the case which is very logical, as the reason I walk 1 km every day to the train station and back is only because I am going to work and coming back from it.
In the end, my health insurance, the bus company and the company I work for, all contributed to the payment of expenses.
Jesus Christ. Glad he's alive. Healdsburg is semi-rural so people do drive like crazy around there.
About the health situation, if he had any insurance he should be okay. I had nominal hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills but ended up paying $2k. When you're unconscious as he likely was, you can't be surprise billed and everything is in-network. Hope he was as on his wife's insurance or something.
I wasn't even an LPR when I was hit. Just work visa.
A little over two months ago, I also suffered a serious accident. I dislocated and broke my ankle in three places (a trimalleolar fracture). I was out of work from five weeks, ended up with blood blisters all over my ankle, had two surgeries, mountains of painkillers, and I still can't walk. I probably won't be able to walk unassisted without an ortho boot until sometime in September, and that's assuming everything goes well.
The villain in my story? An oily little puddle that I went through on my bike. Maybe the new tires I'd put on that didn't have quite as much grip as I expected.
A few years ago, when returning back from work, I was hit by a bus while crossing the road and had some of the similar injuries. Fortunately, the laws here (Belgium) are firm and it was considered as work related accident because it happened while I was returning from work. Stayed at the hospital for 3 weeks, and then stayed at home for about 1.5 more months for recovery.
And I was the only software developer at a tech company at the time. Bus factor is real: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bus_factor