An employee is in the break room drinking vodka. A conveyor falls seriously injuring him and the doctor at the hospital says the employee was intoxicated. You should:

• A. Deny the claim due to intoxication.
• B. Deny the claim.
• C. Obtain a copy of the blood alcohol report and deny the claim.
• D. Accept the claim.

Answer: (A)

Intoxication at the time of a work injury can bar eligibility for benefits if that intoxication was the proximate cause of the injury. In this scenario, the employee was drinking on break and the doctor reports intoxication when the conveyor injury occurred. That means the impairment likely contributed to the accident, so denying the claim aligns with the rule that benefits aren’t payable when intoxication is the cause of the injury.

You don’t need to wait for a blood alcohol report to deny the claim if there’s a medical finding of intoxication that ties to the incident. Accepting the claim would be inappropriate given the intoxication. The option to obtain BAC data is not necessary here and would only delay the process.