Description
Local Authority Liable for Defective Inspection of a Highway The appellant local authority appealed against a decision that it was liable for failing to secure that a public highway was not dangerous to traffic, in accordance with the Highways Act 1980. The trial judge found that an inspection that had been carried out from a vehicle that was travelling at 25mph was insufficient because the speed was too fast to allow a proper inspection to be performed. The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge had been entitled to conclude that, on the balance of probabilities, a dangerous defect existed in the highway at the time. It said that judges are fact finders who have to draw inferences from the limited evidence with which they are provided.
