U-turns allowed when safe to do so
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Q: Recently, I've been seeing a lot of people making U-turns in intersections on green lights. They get to the intersection and turn around. Is this allowed?
A: U-turns may not be common practice for Niagara drivers but they are legal — most of the time.
A Niagara Regional Police spokeswoman said you can make a U-Turn as long as there is not a sign that prohibits it.
The NRP’s traffic enforcement unit passed on some tips from the Ontario drivers handbook which advises drivers to check for a sign before they make a U-turn.
To make a U-turn safely, drivers must be able to see well in both directions, at least 150 metres away.
U-turns are illegal on a curve in the road, on or near a railway crossing, on or near a hilltop, or near a bridge or tunnel that blocks a driver’s view.
Q: What became of the memorial wall that was located in the foyer of the old Hotel Dieu Hospital on Ontario Street?
A: The large panels making up the memorial wall at the old Ontario Street hospital have been kept and are currently in storage.
Mary Jane Johnson, director of
communications for Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre, said the panels are very large, heavy plates and there isn’t room to display them at the current Glenridge Avenue facility.
However, they’re being kept on site in storage with the goal to display them in any future expansion of Hotel Dieu.
The six panels, which are donor walls in memory of loved
ones, are estimated to be seven feet by three feet with two-inch thick glass.
The walls were originally on display at the Hotel Dieu Health Sciences Hospital on Ontario Street. They were moved after a restructuring and swap of assets in 2005 between the hospital and the Niagara Health System. The Dieu took over ownership and governance of Shaver Hospital on Glenridge Avenue and the adjacent Niagara Rehabilitation Centre from the Niagara Health System.
It was renamed Hotel Dieu Shaver Health and Rehabilitation Centre.
The NHS took over all of Hotel Dieu’s programs and its Ontario Street assets and absorbed its debt.
The Ontario Street hospital closed in March 2013 with the opening of the new St. Catharines hospital on Fourth Avenue. Oakville-based Seasons Retirement Communities is planning a massive development on the Ontario Street’s 10-acre site.