The First 24 Hours After a Workplace Injury: Your Step-by-Step Checklist

Your warehouse employee slips on a wet floor and sprains their wrist. Or your office worker reports wrist pain from typing. Or your driver gets rear-ended at a stoplight. If an employee gets injured at work, the first steps after a workplace accident can set the tone for everything that follows.

Your delivery driver is rear-ended at a stoplight. The other driver's clearly at fault, so you assume their insurance will cover everything. You don't report a workers' comp claim. Weeks later, your employee hires an attorney. The attorney directs them to a medical provider and takes them off work.

Winter delivery brings shorter days, icy roads, and unpredictable weather, which DSP drivers face across the U.S., especially in colder regions like the Midwest, Northeast, and Mountain States. According to NCCI, cold days near freezing lead to more workers’ comp claims, with slip-and-fall injuries and vehicle accidents spiking up to 10 percent higher than on milder days.

The sun’s out, the kids are home, and the gates are wide open. For delivery drivers, it’s peak dog bite season.

We hear it all the time: “I slid down the steps because they were icy,” or “I went head over heels on ice.” These real-world incidents drive injury claims every winter. Slips, trips, and falls ranked as the third most common workplace injury in 2020, with winter weather making them more frequent.

Workplace injuries—common among frontline workers—are costly to employers and employees alike.

Musculoskeletal Disorders (MSDs) account for nearly 30% of all workers' compensation costs, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). These injuries, caused by repetitive motions, high-risk postures, and excessive strain, lead to higher injury rates, lost productivity, and increased workers’ compensation expenses.