FSCO denies accident benefits to truck driver who could work, but not help out at home

The Financial Services Commission of Ontario (FSCO) has denied housekeeping, caregiving and medical benefits to a truck driver who was able to continue his job after a motor vehicle accident without any apparent difficulty, but who nevertheless claimed to be too injured to attend to his home duties and look after his children.
“It is important to start by saying that there is no necessary logical connection between Mr. Kaneshan’s admitted ability to continue with his employment after the accident and his claim that he was unable to do housekeeping and caregiving for one year afterwards,” FSCO arbitrator Robert Kominar noted in his reasons for decision in Kannan Kaneshan and Coachman Insurance Company.
In particular, Kominar noted: “I find that it is completely implausible to conclude that Mr. Kaneshan could continue to drive a transport truck full time but that he was unable to occasionally drop his children off at school. In my view, this is completely nonsensical and I draw the inference from it that Mr. Kaneshan is prepared to exaggerate the level of his disability to suit his needs in this arbitration hearing.”
Kannan is self-employed as a transport truck driver. He was involved in a motor vehicle accident on Mar. 7, 2006.
He gave evidence that he didn’t experience immediate pain after the incident, but that he had difficulty turning his neck 15 minutes later. He did not immediately seek medical attention.
Two days later, Kannan went to rehabilitative treatment for his neck and said that it made him feel better, but that the pain didn’t completely go away until March 2007.
Kannan gave evidence that prior to his accident, he and his wife equally shared dusting, mopping, grass-cutting, shopping, laundry, ironing and looking after the children, but he couldn’t perform these duties because of his injury.
But, Kominar noted in his decision, when Kannan “was asked by his counsel whether the accident had any impact on his employment, Mr. Kaneshan answered that it had no effect at all because he sits all the time in the truck.”