The Duty of the Favored Driver Under the Right of Way Statute to Maintain a Reasonable and Proper Lookout

Must the favored driver keep a lookout to the left? The court evaded the issue in the case of Massengale v. Svangren. In that case two cars were approaching an intersection at approximately the same time and at approximately the same speed, 30 miles per hour. Neither driver saw the other until it was too late to avoid the collision.

The majority of the court preferred to place its finding on the ground that since the favored driver "had the right to assume" that the disfavored driver would observe him and yield the right of way, the favored driver's failure to look until too late could not be a proximate cause of the collision. The opinion refused to "decide whether the favored driver had a duty to look to his left."