Workers’ comp should not be awarded to those who act recklessly. We need to test everyone who acts recklessly so the dots can be connected.
Workers’ Compensation awards should not be given to those who act recklessly.
Illinois state trooper Matt Mitchell was on his way to a traffic accident.
Along the way, he lost control of his patrol car and jumped a median, colliding head-on into a car in which Kelli and Jessica Uhl, ages 18 and 13, were killed.
Tragic and sudden adverse events, commonly called accidents,* can occur despite careful thinking unclouded by a damaged neo-cortex, or human part, of the brain. However, they are far more likely to occur in individuals with such damage, since the impulses and instincts of the basal ganglia, or pre-mammalian brain, can and often do impel the person to act recklessly when unimpeded by the rational part of the brain. Unless we are alcohol and other-drug addicts, few of us have damaged frontal lobes.
Evidence abounds that 50% to 80% of “accidents” involve some sort of recklessness on the part of alcoholically brain-damaged individuals. As shown in Get Out of the Way! How to Identify and Avoid a Driver Under the Influence roughly half of road fatalities involve alcohol or other-drug addiction. Studies cited in Drunks, Drugs & Debits found that one or more of the participants in 70-90% of snowmobile, workplace and incendiary accidents were likely addicts. Although lacking studies, we might deduce that law enforcement “accidents” often involve an addicted law enforcer.
The behavioral clues in Matt Mitchell were obvious, even though no one else has suggested the possibility. All the addictionologist has to know to get his antennae up is that Mitchell was sending emails and talking to his girlfriend on his cell phone—and driving at 126 mph. The fact he knew that the accident to which he was heading was already attended to by a fire department, ambulance personnel and sheriff’s deputies is mere icing on the cake.
Unfortunately, according to Drug Recognition Experts I interviewed in researching Get Out of the Way!, depending on the police force 20-50% of active duty cops are practicing alcoholics. Mitchell was sending emails. He was on his cell phone. He was driving through traffic at a ridiculous rate of speed. Just what was he thinking? We could easily surmise he wasn’t thinking rationally, because he couldn’t. Whether or not he was under the influence at the time is irrelevant. We’ll probably never know because it’s likely no one suspected it at the time. After all, he is a cop.
After being on paid leave for two years while awaiting trial, he finally pleaded guilty to reckless homicide and reckless driving. He then resigned from the force and promptly filed a Workers’ Compensation claim for injuries he sustained in the crash. After all, he was on duty.
To the detriment of the Illinois Workers’ Compensation system and all who pay into it, he will likely collect. He shouldn’t collect a dime, but the law needs to be changed to make it so. And while we’re changing the rules, all participants in accidents should undergo mandatory testing for alcohol and other drugs as soon as possible after the incident. If we hope to reduce the number of such tragedies, evil-doers need to be held accountable for their decisions—and if the explanation for awful behavior involves alcohol or other-drug addiction, the perpetrator needs to be proscribed from ever using again. And they certainly shouldn’t be rewarded.
* There should be a way to distinguish between crashes that are truly unforeseeable accidents and those that have their roots in substance addiction, an idea discussed in the March 2008 TAR.
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