White v. Department of Highways

Claimants seek an award of $579.04 for damage to their 1979 Ford Bronco, which occurred on a bridge on the Whitman Creek Road in Logan County, West Virginia, on October 8, 1984. Barbara White was driving the vehicle at the time of the incident. As the vehicle crossed the bridge, which is a wooden planked bridge, one of the planks, a two by eight, dislodged and tore a hole through the bottom of the Bronco.

The State is neither an insurer nor a guarantor of the safety of travellers on its highways. Adkins v. Sims, 130 W.Va. 645, 46 S.E.2d 81 (1947). In order to charge respondent with negligence,…