An employee arrives at work, parks his car in the company parking lot, and as he is getting out of his car he slams the car door shut and “pinches” his finger. Or she slips while exiting the car and falls onto the parking lot, sustaining a knee injury. These incidents are considered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to be work-related and would be OSHA recordable, assuming other criteria for recording are met (the injury requires medical treatment beyond first aid or results in days away from work), according to Jackson Lewis, a national law firm.

In a recently released letter of interpretation OSHA has narrowed the exception to the recordkeeping regulation that injuries are not recordable if they are caused by a motor vehicle accident on company property, Jackson Lewis says. The law firm advises that employers who are required to keep OSHA logs should adjust their recordkeeping procedures to account for the new interpretation.

Ordinarily, injuries caused by a motor vehicle accident and occurring on a company parking lot while the employee is commuting to or from work is not recordable, Jackson Lewis says, but OSHA has interpreted “motor vehicle accidents” to mean accidents caused by moving vehicles, not stationary ones. Thus if an employee is injured in an accident involving a stationary vehicle, it could be reportable.