In that specific case the court found an imprudent shortcut over railroad tracks rendered an injury at that location noncompensable, while implying that an injury which occurred on a public street would be compensable. This concept is consistent with our precedents in Cole v.Norwalk Wilbert Vault Co., 4 Conn. Workers' Comp. Rev. Op. 155, 330 CRD-2-84 (February 26, 1988) and Zullo v. Caron Roofing Company,Inc., 12 Conn. Workers' Comp. Rev. Op. 357, 1634 CRB-4-93-2 (August 2, 1994), where we determined that injuries suffered while undergoing authorized rehabilitation from a compensable injury were compensable injuries as well. Apart from the concept of "mutual benefit," all these cases involve the concept of "proximate cause" i.e. whether the subsequent injury had a "proximate cause set in motion by the employment," Kolomiets v. Syncor International Corp., 252 Conn. 261, 272 (2000),"[a]n injury of this description is one of the risks of the employment, for it is due to it and arises from it, either directly or as incident to it, or to the conditions and exposure surrounding it. And the proximate cause of the injury is not necessarily that which immediately arises out of the employment, but may be that which is reasonably incidental to it." Larke v. Hancock Mutual Life Ins.Co., 90 Conn. 303, 309-310 (1916).
In cases where a claimant has been injured while participating in a vocational rehabilitation program, we have held that the injury is compensable absent evidence of some intervening causative activity. Zullo v. Caron Roofing Company,Inc., 12 Conn. Workers' Comp. Rev. Op. 357, 358, 1634 CRB-4-93-2 (Aug. 2, 1994) (chair collapsed while claimant was attending class); Cole, supra, 156-57 (claimant injured left wrist and elbow while at welding school). This is because the claimant's presence at the training site in both cases was a direct result of his original work-related injury. However, we have also held that a claimant who was injured in a car accident while driving home from an informal workers' compensation hearing was not entitled to benefits under the Workers' Compensation Act.Fantasia v. Tony Pantano Mason Contractors, 14 Conn. Workers' Comp. Rev. Op. 36, 38, 1819 CRB-5-93-8 (May 4, 1995).