Scenario: In your letter, you state that an employee who does not have a fixed work site left his home and traveled approximately 300 miles to a customer site. After the employee arrived at the customer site, he checked into a hotel and conducted work activities for several days. Once the work activities at the customer site were completed, the employee traveled to a relative’s home and stayed overnight at a hotel. Both the relative’s home and hotel were located near the route the employee would have used had he traveled directly from the customer site back to his home.
After staying overnight at the hotel, the employee resumed his trip back home using the same route he would have taken had he not stopped to visit his relative. Along the way, he stopped for gas, which he paid for with his company credit card, and resumed his trip home. As he neared his home, his vehicle apparently slid on an icy road (not in a construction zone), resulting in an accident that fatally injured the employee.
Question: Is the employee’s death work-related, considering the various stops and overnight stays?