The installation or omission of prescribed traffic control devices by a public authority involves the exercise of a 'special statutory power' under s 43A of the Civil Liability Act 2002 (NSW), engaging the heightened Wednesbury-like standard of unreasonableness. However, the evidence of a senior council officer that the omission of signage 'made no sense', combined with the mandate in the RTA manual and the absence of countervailing considerations, was sufficient to satisfy that standard. On causation in warning cases, the scope of liability under s 5D(1)(b) limits recovery to harm resulting from the risk the warning was designed to address, not harm from unrelated causes that the warning would coincidentally have prevented.
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