## Facts

- Alden D. Whitmer, a Colorado employee of Silver Engineering Works, was sent to El Dorado, Mexico to assist with and receive training on operation of equipment sold to a Mexican sugar plant.
- During an Easter-weekend shutdown of the plant, Whitmer and other employees drove over a difficult road to a remote beach to swim and fish.
- Whitmer swam in the outlet of a river at the beach and drowned; his body was found the next morning several miles away.
- Whitmer was in “travel status” (away from home on a work trip) at the time of death.
- A workers’ compensation referee denied death benefits as outside the course and scope of employment; the Industrial Commission reversed and awarded benefits; the court of appeals affirmed.

## Issues

1. Whether a traveling employee’s death by drowning during a remote swimming and fishing excursion, taken during a worksite shutdown, “arose out of and in the course of” employment under the Colorado Workmen’s Compensation Act.

## Decision

- The Colorado Supreme Court reversed the court of appeals and set aside the Industrial Commission’s award.
- The court held the death did not arise out of and in the course of employment because the employee substantially deviated from work for purely personal recreation.
- The court recognized broad, but not unlimited, coverage for traveling employees and concluded the recreational beach trip broke the employment connection.

## Legal Principles

- Workers’ compensation requires that an injury or death both “arise out of” and occur “in the course of” employment.
- A traveling employee is generally within continuous coverage for activities reasonably necessary to, or incidental to, the work trip (e.g., lodging, meals, ordinary travel, and limited relaxation tied to the trip).
- Continuous coverage is interrupted by a substantial personal deviation; injuries from purely personal recreation that is a distinct excursion, rather than an incident of travel, are not compensable.
- A causal nexus is required between employment and the risk causing injury; risks encountered during a substantial recreational deviation are not employment risks.

## Conclusion

Although the employee was on an out-of-town assignment, his planned trip to a remote beach to swim and fish during a shutdown was a substantial personal deviation; therefore, his drowning did not arise out of and in the course of employment and was not compensable.


Silver Eng'g Works, Inc. v. Simmons, 505 P.2d 966 (Colo. 1973)