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Section 41 HA 1980 makes the highway authority responsible for
maintaining public highways. Moreover, s392 makes it clear that
‘maintenance’ includes ‘repair’. But, does that duty extend to repairing and
maintaining drains beneath the highway surface?
Likewise, does it mean
that the authority is responsible for clearing blocked drains, or even dealing
with the consequences of inadequate drainage?
A recent consolidated appeal to the CA involved three similar accidents caused
by standing water on roads. In each, the drains had been blocked by silt, debris
and vegetation. The CA held that the highway authority was liable. The statutory
duty to maintain the highway extends beneath the surface to include the drains
(and that includes not only the repair of physical defects in the drains, but also
the clearance of blockages). In reaching this decision the CA has, in effect, put
the law back to what it was generally perceived to be prior to Goodes [2000].
Generally, therefore, a highway accident caused by a lack of repair to the road
surface, or an obstruction on the surface caused by a failure to deal with
blocked or inadequate drains, will mean that the highway authority is liable.
DTER v Mott MacDonald [2006] EWCA Civ 1089.
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October 2006 |
