Commute Workplace Injury (In Itinere) Legal Representation in Buenos Aires

A commute accident (in itinere) happens on the direct route between your home and your job, not inside the company. Even though it didn't happen at your workplace, the ART must cover it exactly like an on-site accident: full medical care, your salary during leave, and compensation if you're left with permanent injury. We represent you at no upfront cost.

What Is a Commute Accident (In Itinere) and What Does the Law Require to Cover It?

Article 6 of Workers' Compensation Law No. 24,557 draws no line between an accident that happens inside the plant and one that happens on the street on the way there: both count as a "work accident" under the law. The statute sets a single requirement for the commute: it must be direct and uninterrupted between your home and your workplace, with no detours for reasons unrelated to work.

That doesn't mean the route has to be the shortest one on the map. Labor case law accepts reasonable variations — avoiding a street with no traffic lights, taking a different bus combination because of the time of day, working around a road closure — because what the law protects is the causal link between the commute and the job, not one rigid, single route.

The law also expressly allows you to change your usual route without losing coverage. You can declare in writing to your employer that your route is changing for reasons of study, a second job, or caring for a sick immediate family member who doesn't live with you. Once you declare that change, your employer must report it to the ART, and the alternate route is protected exactly like the original one.

What does break coverage is a detour for a personal reason unrelated to work, study, or the family situation you declared: stopping at the bank for your own errand, going somewhere for a social reason, or extending your way home by several blocks for none of those reasons. That's where the ART has a legitimate opening to question the causal link.

The coverage triggered by a commute accident is exactly the same as an accident that happens on the shop floor or in the office: free medical and pharmaceutical care, prosthetics and rehabilitation, your full salary while your temporary disability lasts, and a lump-sum payment if you're left with permanent injury. The ART cannot offer you reduced coverage just because it was a commute accident.

In Itinere Is Not the Same: Three Distinctions That Change Your Claim

Confusing these three situations is the most common mistake when filing a claim — and it's also the ART's favorite argument for delaying or denying one. Before moving forward, work out which of the three applies to you.

The practical consequence is this: if your case is in itinere, half the fight happens over the evidence, not the law. The ART rarely disputes that an on-site accident is covered; what it disputes, often, is whether the route you were on is the one the law protects.

Step by Step: What to Do After a Commute Accident

How you act in the first hours after the accident often decides whether the ART accepts or rejects the claim. Follow this order:

• 1. Report the accident immediately to your employer and the ART: do it as soon as you can, within 48 hours of the accident. Always ask for the claim number — it's your proof that the report was filed.
• 2. File a police report if a vehicle was involved: a collision, a fall from a motorcycle, or being hit by a vehicle should be logged with the police or, if an ambulance took you, with the SAME emergency medical service. If it was a fall with no other party involved — a pothole on the sidewalk, a wet floor at the train station — a record of care at the emergency room serves the same purpose.
• 3. Identify witnesses to your commute: a coworker who travels with you, a neighbor, another passenger on the bus or train. Get a name and a phone number before the urgency of the moment makes that impossible.
• 4. Gather documentation of your usual route: your SUBE transit card's travel history, your employer's clock-in and clock-out records (biometric clock or schedule sheet), a trip receipt if you used a ride-hailing app, or the schedule stated in your employment contract. Anything that confirms that on that day, at that time, you were on your way to or from work strengthens your case.
• 5. Keep every medical record: X-rays, MRIs, ER reports, and hospital discharge summaries. The SRT Medical Commission will set your disability percentage — and therefore your compensation — based on those records.
• 6. Don't sign your medical discharge if you still have pain or limitations: you have the right to challenge it through the divergence process before considering the case closed.

Common Grounds for Rejection and How to Challenge Them

When an ART rejects a commute accident, it almost always targets the same gray area: proof of the route. Here are the arguments that come up most often, and how to counter them.

• "The route wasn't direct": the ART claims you took a detour for a personal reason. This is countered by showing the detour was reasonable — avoiding an unsafe area, a street closure — or that it was covered by a route change you had already declared for study, a second job, or a sick family member.
• "The timing doesn't add up": they claim the time of the accident doesn't match your clock-in or clock-out. This is countered with your employer's attendance records and your SUBE travel history, which usually pin down the exact time you were traveling.
• "The address on file doesn't match your report": if you moved and didn't formally notify your employer, the ART can question whether the route where the accident happened was really the one to your job. That's why it's worth reporting any change of address in writing, even when it feels like a minor formality.
• "Insufficient evidence of the event": they claim there isn't enough proof the accident happened the way you describe, especially when there's no police report. This is countered with witnesses, immediate medical care, and a clinical record consistent with how the injury occurred.

Whatever the rejection, the path forward is the "Divergencia en el Rechazo" (Divergence in Rejection) process before the SRT's Jurisdictional Medical Commission, with a strict 20-working-day deadline from the notice. Legal representation is mandatory and free for you: the insurer pays the fees by law. For the full walkthrough of that process, see our guide on ART claim rejections.

Frequently Asked Questions