Highways agencies and local authorities have a duty to maintain highways. Slips, trips and falls on defective highways, streets, roads and pathways are very common.
Common defects can include potholes, cracked or broken paving slabs, missing manhole covers, uneven ground and no barriers or rails found on public walkways and stairs.
The Highways Act 1980 is the act for governing and maintaining the highways. Under S41 of the 1980 Act, the local authority have a duty to maintain the highways, and that duty ‘is to ensure as reasonably practicable’ that the public will have a safe passage along the highway.
S58 sets out the special defence which local authorities can call on if needed. Local authorities may have a defence, if they have taken all reasonably required steps to secure that the part of the highway in question, to prevent the highway from being unsafe or dangerous. When considering the reasonable steps the following needs to be considered:
- the character of the highway, and the traffic which was reasonably to be expected to use it;
- the standard of the maintenance that was appropriate to highway;
- the highway was in a state of repair that was reasonable;
- could local authority reasonably been expected to know, or knew, about condition of the highway if it was defective?
- could local authority not be reasonably expected to repair part of the highway?
If the defect is no more than 1 inch, it would seem that your claim may not have a reasonable chance of success, as it could be argued that the defect is not ‘dangerous’ enough. The other side can actually use this argument.
Highways agency and local authority should have an inspection procedure in place to ensure that the highways are regularly inspected for any defects. They must also ensure that they promptly respond to any complaint about the state of any paths or highways.
If you have been injured by a defective highway, give us a call on 0800 634 75 75 on our free claims helpline.
