The gravel posed a danger to passing motorists, regardless of any third-party conduct. Hence, the imposition of a duty in this case does not put an elevated burden on defendants to guard against the negligence of others. It merely asks defendants to prevent conditions on their land from migrating onto the highway and thereby creating hazards to the motoring public. Finally, the underlying rationale for imposing a duty on the landowner for injuries caused by his artificial conditions is that the landowner is generally in the best position to prevent the injury. This case is no exception.
Defendants routinely enter and exit their own property.
It follows that defendants are most likely to observe the loose gravel being tracked onto the road and can most effectively eliminate the hazard. Defendants work hard at trying to carve out a special exception in negligence cases, to allow conditions on private property that migrate onto public ways to be considered absolutely immune from traditional duties imposed by law even if a hazardous condition results. All one needs to do is look at what the consequences would be if defendants' position was adopted. If a garden hose was left on and allowed to flow into the street where the water froze, there would no duty to turn off the hose or clear the street. Both such acts would be immune from a civil action by one injured on the street, by defendants' logic, because there is no duty to prevent or correct these obviously hazardous conditions.