Did Deflated Seat Cause Fuel Truck Driver’s Degenerative Spine Condition?

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Pikeville, KY (WorkersCompensation.com) -- To obtain permanent total disability, an employee must show that the disability is causally connected to the workplace injury at issue. A case involving a truck driver for a fuel company addresses that issue in the context of a degenerative spinal condition.

The employee in that case was driving a company truck when he hit a dip in the road. The dip caused the truck’s air-controlled seat to suddenly deflate, injuring the employee’s lower back. 

An ALJ awarded the driver permanent total disability benefits. 

The ALJ reasoned that the findings of one doctor "noted the progression of [the employee’s] work-related low back symptoms" and concluded, "based upon the report of [the doctor], that [employee’s] limitations and increased restrictions related to his lumbar spine condition constitute a further arousal of his degenerative and congenital stenosis and are therefore causally work-related."

The board reversed the ALJ’s decision, finding insufficient evidence that the accident caused the worsening of the employee’s spinal issue.

On appeal, the court stated that an ALJ must undertake a five-step analysis to determine total disability. The ALJ must determine: 

1) Whether the claimant suffered a work-related injury; 

2) What, if any, impairment rating the claimant has; 

3) The permanent disability rating; 

4) That the claimant cannot perform any type of work; and 

5) That the total disability is the result of the work-related injury

Did the ALJ make a mistake by awarding the driver PTD?

A. No. The doctor’s statement established that the injury was severe and that the employee was no longer capable of working.

B. Yes. The doctor wasn’t clear about whether the accident caused the worsening injury and didn’t mention whether non-work-related factors might have contributed to the employee’s total disability.

If you selected B, you agreed with the court in Cole v. K.Y. Fuels Corp., No. 2023-CA-1478-WC (Ky. Ct. App. 09/13/24, unpublished), which held that the ALJ never connected the workplace injury to the aggravation of the driver’s worsening back condition.

The court found that the ALJ failed to point to specific evidence showing that the driver’s total disability was caused by the work-related injury. While the ALJ discussed the doctors’ findings concerning the severity of the condition, the fact that it was getting worse, the worker’s inability to perform work, the doctor’s report he relied on offered no opinion regarding the cause of the worsened condition. 

“[T]he ALJ points to no specific finding of [the doctor’s] to serve as the necessary substantial evidence that the work-related lumbar spine injury specifically caused the worsening of his condition and that [the employee’s] nonwork-related conditions did not,” the court wrote.

The court remanded the case to the board to remand to the ALJ. It stated that “the ALJ must identify specific medical evidence which establishes a causal connection between the work-related injury and Cole's worsened condition.”

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