Opinion ID: 2223963
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Plaintiff's first specification of negligence was defendant's failure to keep a proper lookout.

Text: Keeping a proper lookout is not a statutory duty in Iowa but motorists have a common law duty to exercise ordinary care under the circumstances in maintaining a lookout (citing cases).    Proper lookout means more than seeing the object. It implies being watchful of the movements of the driver's own vehicle as well as the movements of the thing seen or seeable. It involves the care, watchfulness and attention of the ordinarily prudent person under the circumstances (citing cases). We have said several times that turning in front of an oncoming car is evidence of failure to keep a proper lookout. Mathews v. Beyer, 254 Iowa 52, 57-58, 116 N.W.2d 477, 480, and citations. We have also held when there is evidence that a party was driving on his left-hand side of the road, lookout is necessarily involved. Hackman v. Beckwith, 245 Iowa 791, 802, 64 N.W.2d 275, 282. There was sufficient evidence to submit this specification to a jury. Failure to do so was error.