Wasser v. Northampton County

Citations

• 249 Pa. 25
• 94 A. 444
• 1915 Pa. LEXIS 668

Syllabus

<p>Negligence—-Municipalities — Counties — Highways — Embankment—Guard rails—Automobiles—Contributory negligence—Non-suit.</p> <p>1. Where a highway runs along the edge of a precipice or dangerous embankment, it is the duty of a municipality to erect guards or barriers for the protection of the traveling public and the failure to perform this duty makes the county, or township, as the case may be, liable in damages for injuries resulting from such neglect.</p> <p>2. There is no hard and fast rule as to the kind and character of a guard fail or barrier to be erected so that the highway may be deemed reasonably safe for the ordinary needs of travel. If the condition of the road meets the requirements which ordinary users of the road demand, the authorities in charge have performed their duty under the law and cannot be made answerable in damages for extraordinary accidents occurring on them. The ordinary needs of travel change with changed circumstances and road officials must keep in mind the new uses of travel in the construction and maintenance of highways.</p> <p>3. There is no duty on the part of a municipality to erect a guard rail strong enough to prevent an automobile driven at a high speed from running over an embankment in close proximity to the highway. The presence of a guard rail gives notice that the place where it is erected is dangerous.</p> <p>4. In an action against a county to recover damages for death of plaintiff’s decedent, a nonsuit was properly entered where it appeared that the plaintiff’s husband and son were riding in an automobile, which while going at the rate of about twenty-five miles an hour struck a guard rail separating the highway and a steep embankment, with such force as to lift the posts out of the ground and carry the whole structure over the embankment, resulting in the death of both occupants of the car, and that the rail was properly placed and the accident did not happen by reason of any defect in the rail.</p>