Are U-Turns equivalent to 3-Point Turns according to courts?
In your question you didn’t indicate whether a sign was in place where you made the U-turn. In Ontario there are prohibitions on U-turns that are not necessarily signed. For example, it is illegal to perform a U-turn if you do not have clear line-of-sight of the road in each direction for 150 metres. The Highway Traffic Act refers to a U-turn as “turning a vehicle so as to travel in the opposite direction.” Thus three-point-turns and u-turns are equivalent. If there was a prohibition sign, there is likely a local by-law prohibiting the turn, which would follow the same thinking as the HTA. If you are planning on fighting the ticket, a good tactic would be to make a disclosure request asking for the police officer’s notes and a certified copy of the by-law. If you don’t receive these, you can ask for a stay due to improper disclosure.
