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IN THE COURT OF APPEALS OF IOWA No. 7-848 / 07-0094 Filed January 16, 2008

JOHN H. HALTERMAN, Plaintiff-Appellant, vs. VERL JACKSON and MERLE H. CROSSETT, Defendants-Appellees. ________________________________________________________________

Appeal from the Iowa District Court for Pottawattamie County, Greg W. Steensland, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals from the district court's ruling denying his motion for new trial following a jury verdict and judgment entry in favor of defendants. REVERSED AND REMANDED.

Dennis M. Gray and Jacob J. Peters of Peters Law Firm, P.C., Council Bluffs, for appellant. T.J. Pattermann of Smith Peterson Law Firm, L.L.P., Council Bluffs, for appellees.

Considered by Vogel, P.J., and Mahan and Zimmer, JJ.

2 ZIMMER, J. John Halterman appeals from the district court's ruling denying his motion for new trial following a jury verdict and judgment entry in favor of Verl Jackson and Merle Crossett. We reverse and remand for a new trial on all issues. I. Background Facts and Proceedings. On April 15, 2003, Halterman and his friend, Deloris Tye, were traveling east on Interstate 80 (I-80) near Council Bluffs, Iowa. Soon after Halterman began driving on I-80, he encountered signs warning him of approaching road construction. The signs directed motorists traveling in the right lane to merge into the left lane. Barrels were also set up in the right lane to gradually taper traffic into the left lane. Halterman came upon Jackson's semi-truck, which was being driven by Crossett, and passed the truck. Halterman estimated he was driving

approximately fifty-five miles per hour while Crossett, a semi-truck driver with at least thirty years' experience, was traveling at about thirty to thirty-five miles per hour. The speed limit in the "pre-construction zone" was fifty-five miles per hour. Upon passing Crossett, Halterman noticed an elderly lady in a white vehicle "about five car lengths or so" ahead of him on his right side. Aware of the impending road construction, Halterman slowed down to about thirty miles per hour to allow the white vehicle to merge in front of him. As they approached the barrels forcing traffic into the left lane, the white vehicle did not seem as if it was going to merge. Tye leaned out of the passenger-side window "trying to get her attention to move her in front of us." Halterman continued to slow down and moved over to the far left side of the left lane to allow the white vehicle to merge

3 in front of him. The white vehicle was running out of room to travel in the right lane due to the barrels, and Halterman was against the guardrail of a bridge on the interstate "clear over to the left side as far as he could go." It then appeared to him that the white vehicle was going to stop, so he started to proceed ahead of it. The white vehicle did not stop and instead turned left into Halterman's path. Tye said, "'look out. . . . [S]he's going to hit us,'" and Halterman "slammed on the brakes." Crossett, who estimated he had been traveling about seventy-five to one hundred feet behind Halterman since he was passed, saw the white vehicle "come out like she was going to stop there . . . to get on the

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