The motorist on a favored street has the right to assume that any driver
approaching the intersection on a less favored street will yield the
right-of-way. This right-of-way driver can indulge in this assumption
until he sees, or should have seen, that the other car has not yielded.
The doctrine of preemption allows a non-favored or inferior motorist who
enters an intersection to prevail where there is evidence that the
inferior driver attempted to cross a favored street when he had a
reasonable opportunity to cross without endangering or impeding passage of
vehicles on the favored street.
A motorist who is about to enter a roadway from a private driveway is
required to yield the right-of-way to all approaching vehicles so close as
to constitute an immediate hazard. Unusual, extreme and high care toward
the favored traffic is required of such a motorist.
Conversely, the duty of the driver on the favored street toward the
intruding motorist is the much lesser ordinary care standard and that
driver may generally rely on the assumption or presumption that those
vehicles entering the highway from less favorable positions such as a
private drive will not drive into the path of favored traffic. The
presumption or assumption may not be relied upon by a motorist who is
proceeding unlawfully before or after he sees the intruding vehicle.
A motorist attempting to enter the highway from the shoulder of the road
is held to the same standard of care as a motorist entering the highway
from a private driveway. A driver is required to keep a lookout for
vehicles upon the highway and to resist from entering until it is apparent
to a reasonably prudent person that such can be done in safety.
The driver of the overtaking or passing vehicle has the duty to ascertain
before attempting to pass a preceding vehicle that from all the
circumstances of traffic, the conditions of the highway and the lay of the
land, the passing can be completed with safety. He must be alert to the
actions of a motorist preceeding him on the highway.
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