Martinowski v. Commonwealth, Dep't of Transp

In Martinowski v. Commonwealth, Dep't of Transp., 916 A.2d 717 (Pa. Cmwlth. 2006), appeal denied, 594 Pa. 682, 932 A.2d 1290 (2007), the Court addressed the elements of a negligence claim where a vehicle left the paved highway without explanation and struck a PennDOT guardrail. After a review of numerous cases, the Court concluded that the inability of the motorist to establish how or why she left the road prevented her from establishing one of the essential elements of her common law claim against PennDOT, causation. Accordingly, a summary judgment in favor of PennDOT was affirmed. In doing so, this Court rejected an argument similar to the one advanced here, that the driver did not need to explain how she came in contact with the guardrail because it was foreseeable that she would do so. Martinowski, 916 A.2d at 725, n. 6.