Aitchison v. Reter

This accident occurred on a north-and-south street in the city of Clinton, Iowa, which inclines southward at the place of the collision. It occurred as defendant, proceeding northward, started to make a sharp left turn into his narrow home driveway which was about 100 feet south of the nearest street intersection. Plaintiff was operating his vehicle southward. On the west side of the street an automobile was parked about six feet south of defendant's driveway. The street was about 27 feet wide from gutter to gutter at this point. All involved cars were about six feet wide. The weather was ""squally"" and the pavement wet. Plaintiff testified that he was driving ""approximately 30 miles per hour"" when he approached the defendant's car coming from the opposite direction, well over on his right-hand side, near the gutter, and it seemed as if defendant were giving plaintiff plenty of room to pass between defendant's car and the one parked at the west curb; that suddenly defendant turned sharply left toward his driveway and they collided; that he applied his brakes hard and slid his wheels approximately 23 feet when he saw defendant start his left turn. He testified that, although his visibility was good, he saw no turn signal and no evidence of defendant's car slowing down from its speed of about 20 miles per hour. The left front fenders of the two vehicles came together, and defendant's car was turned around, pushed back some 15 feet and came to rest facing southwesterly. Plaintiff's car was pushed into or sideswiped the [245 Iowa Page 1007] parked car and came to rest about 15 feet south of the point of impact parallel with the parked car and still facing south.