Description
The Court of Appeal held that the trial judge had been entitled to find the relevant highway in breach of its obligations under section 41 of the Highways Act 1980, in that a difference in height, a drop off of 6 to 12 inches, between a carriageway and verge, rendered a highway not reasonably safe for ordinary traffic, even after making due allowance for poor drivers. The expert evidence to that effect was inescapable and drove the conclusion made by the judge. Previous works undertaken by the highway authority raising the level of verges to the carriageway fixed it with constructive knowledge that the height of the drop off was dangerous and therefore it had failed for the purposes of section 58 to prove that it had taken such care as was reasonably required of it to secure that the highway was not dangerous for traffic.
