Judge rules DOT not culpable in Seneca accident

A circuit judge’s ruling dismisses the South Carolina DOT as a defendant in a lawsuit alleging negligence as the result of a pedestrian accident in 2017 at a Seneca intersection.  A lawsuit was filed on behalf of a man who walked across S. Oak Street after pushing the walk button at S. 6th Street and was hit by a passing heating and air conditioning vehicle.  As to the negligence alleged on the part of the DOT, the pedestrian’s attorney argued that the state failed to properly mark the walk ways crossing the street.  But Judge Scott Sprouse decided that, “pursuant to South Carolina statutory law, a crosswalk at an intersection can be marked or unmarked.  There is no duty on SCDOT,” the judge ruled, “to provide a marked crosswalk.  The decision to have a marked or unmarked crosswalk is a design issue.”  Summary judgment was granted to the DOT in Sprouse’s ruling January 5.