Commissioner of Main Roads v Jones

The Commissioner of Main Roads (the Commissioner) appealed to the High Court of Australia against a decision of the Supreme Court of Queensland which had awarded damages to Mr. Jones for personal injuries sustained when his vehicle collided with a concrete median strip on a State highway. The dispute concerned the Commissioner's liability for the injuries, with Mr. Jones alleging negligence in the design and maintenance of the highway.

The High Court was required to determine whether the Commissioner owed a duty of care to road users in relation to the design and maintenance of the highway, and if so, whether that duty had been breached. Specifically, the Court considered whether the presence of the median strip, and the circumstances of its construction and lighting, constituted a failure to take reasonable care for the safety of drivers using the road. The Court also had to assess whether any such breach of duty caused or contributed to Mr. Jones's injuries.

The High Court found that the Commissioner did owe a duty of care to road users to ensure the highway was reasonably safe. However, the Court held that the evidence did not establish that the design or construction of the median strip was negligent. The Court reasoned that the median strip was a common feature of highways designed to separate opposing traffic flows and that its presence, in itself, did not render the road unsafe. Furthermore, the Court found that the lighting conditions at the time of the accident, while not ideal, were not so deficient as to constitute a breach of the Commissioner's duty of care, particularly given the nature of the road and the presence of other warning signs. The Court concluded that Mr. Jones's own actions were the primary cause of the accident.

The appeal was allowed, and the judgment of the Supreme Court of Queensland in favour of Mr. Jones was set aside.