A road authority's duty of care to road users (drivers) extends to those who fail to exercise reasonable care for their own safety, including those who are inadvertent, inattentive, or careless. This is fundamentally different from the duty owed to pedestrians, where the authority may generally assume the pedestrian will perceive and avoid obvious hazards. A finding of contributory negligence on the part of a road user does not negate a finding of breach of duty by the road authority — the two concepts are not mutually exclusive. Whether the court approaches the question via scope of duty or breach of duty should not affect the outcome.
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