Strange v. S.C. Department of Highways & Public Transportation

Harwell, Chief Justice:

Appellant South Carolina Department of Highways and Public Transportation contends the trial judge committed a variety of errors when he presided over the trial of this personal injury lawsuit. We agree with several of appellant’s assertions, and, accordingly, reverse and remand for a new trial.

I. FACTS

Respondents Tammi Strange and Jonnie Faye Hudson drove to a tavern one rainy night in order to use a telephone *163there. They traveled along an unpainted, ungraded secondary road covered with dark, new asphalt. On the way back home, respondents’ automobile ran off the…