1. In Snyder v. Harmon, 522 Pa. 424, 435, 562 A.2d 307, 312 (1989), the plaintiffs, who had left the Sky View Lounge at approximately 2:30 a.m., were driving home when they stopped their vehicle in order to permit one of the passengers (Johnson) to relieve himself. A strip mine was located adjacent to the highway where the vehicle stopped. A mining company had obtained a variance from the Department of Environmental Protection that permitted the mining company to construct an embankment on the highwall of the mine for the purpose of preventing vehicles from driving into the pit. The drop from the top of the embankment to the bottom of the pit was eighty feet. After the plaintiffs stopped and Johnson exited the vehicle, a driver of another vehicle attempted to hit Johnson, who climbed the embankment to avoid being hit and fell into the mine pit. As a result of the fall, Johnson became a paraplegic. At that time, other passengers exited the car, and, when the other driver attempted to hit those individuals, they also climbed the embankment and fell into the pit. Two of those passengers sustained serious injuries, and the other was killed in the fall. The plaintiffs asserted that DOT had permitted a dangerous condition to exist on the highway by failing to warn the public regarding the condition either by lighting the area or by placing barriers such as guardrails along the right-of-way. The Supreme Court observed that a governmental entity waives sovereign immunity when an artificial condition or defect of the land itself causes injury, rather than merely facilitates an injury. Snyder, 522 Pa. at 434, 562 A.2d at 312. Further, the duty Commonwealth agencies owe to those using Commonwealth real estate is to ensure that the condition of the real estate is safe for those activities for which the property is regularly used, intended to be used, or reasonably foreseen to be used. Id. at 435, 562 A.2d at 312. The Supreme Court rejected the plaintiffs' claims that proximity between the right-of-way of the highway and the mine pit combined with "the unlit area and deceptive appearance of the shoulder" created "an inherently dangerous condition." Id., 562 A.2d at 312. The Supreme Court opined that such circumstances reflected a claim of liability not predicated on a defective condition on Commonwealth land, but rather knowledge of an inherently dangerous condition contiguous with Commonwealth property which the Commonwealth knows or should reasonably know and takes no action to prevent any harm from occurring . . . This theory . . . is not supported by any exception to our immunity statute." Id., 562 A.2d at 312. Additionally, our Supreme Court stated that "the absence of lighting adjacent to a deep mine pit so as to create a deceptive appearance of the shoulder of the road cannot be said to be either an artificial condition or a defect of the land itself. Id., 562 A.2d at 312-13. In sum, three people were seriously injured and one person was killed when they fell into a strip mine that was adjacent to a state highway and seven feet outside DOT's right-of-way. The court in Snyder determined that pursuant to the unambiguous language of the real estate exception to sovereign immunity found at 42 Pa. C.S. 8522(b)(4), "a dangerous condition must derive, originate from or have as its source the Commonwealth realty." Snyder, 522 Pa. at 433, 562 A.2d at 311. Thus, the court rejected the plaintiffs' assertion that the close proximity between the state highway and the hazardous condition outside DOT's right-of-way presented an inherently dangerous condition of Commonwealth real estate. In doing so, the court stressed that the plaintiffs did not base DOT's liability on a defective condition of Commonwealth land but, rather, on DOT's failure to take action to prevent harm from occurring when it knew or should have known of an inherently dangerous condition on land contiguous with Commonwealth property. The court observed that, "while this theory appears attractive, it is not supported by any exception to our immunity statute." Snyder, 522 Pa. at 435, 562 A.2d at 312. 3. In Snyder v. Harmon, 522 Pa. 424, 562 A.2d 307 (1989), passengers in a car had stopped on the berm of the road. In an attempt to avoid being hit by an oncoming car, they exited their vehicle and fell into a strip mine. The passengers claimed that the deceptive appearance of the unlit shoulder of the road and its proximity to the deep chasm created a dangerous condition of Commonwealth realty. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court stated that the absence of lighting or the deceptive appearance of the road cannot be found to be a dangerous condition of the real estate.