Editing Proximate cause (section)

===Harm within the risk===

The harm within the risk (HWR) test determines whether the victim was among the class of persons who could foreseeably be harmed, and whether the harm was foreseeable within the class of risks.  It is the strictest test of causation, made famous by [[Benjamin Cardozo]] in ''[[Palsgraf v. Long Island Railroad Co.]]'' case under New York [[United States|state]] law.<ref>''Palsgraf v. Long Island Rail Road Co.'', 162 N.E. 99 (N.Y. 1928).</ref>

The first element of the test is met if the injured person was a member of a class of people who could be expected to be put at risk of injury by the action. For example, a pedestrian, as an expected user of sidewalks, is among the class of people put at risk by driving on a sidewalk, whereas a driver who is distracted by another driver driving on the sidewalk, and consequently crashes into a utility pole, is not.

The HWR test is no longer much used, outside of [[New York (state)|New York]] law. When it is used, it is used to consider the class of people injured, not the type of harm.{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}  The main criticism of this test is that it is preeminently concerned with culpability, rather than actual causation.