A prominent Cape Breton businessman plans to fight a $399.91 Motor Vehicle Act ticket he received after he was involved in a fatal collision.

Douglas Parker Rudderham is president and CEO of Quebec-based Pharmacy Wholesale Services Inc., a company that bills itself on its website as “the largest privately held wholesale medical diagnostics distributor in North America.”

“It’s like anybody else, you get a speeding ticket, and you don’t agree with it, you contest it,” said Joel Pink, Rudderham’s lawyer.

The 57-year-old also owns Coltsfoot Publishing, which publishes Halifax-based Frankmagazine, a news, commentary and satire magazine that tackles everything from politics to the local rumour mill.

On Sept. 14, Rudderham was driving his Cadillac Escalade in Sydney, N.S. around 4 p.m. when his vehicle collided with a motorcycle travelling in front of him.

The motorcycle driver, 67-year-old Jack MacDonald, was pronounced dead at the scene.

Since then, the collision has been the talk of Cape Breton, said MacDonald’s sister-in-law, who did not want to be named. “You can’t go anywhere. Everybody’s talking about it.”

MacDonald’s sister-in-law said he once sat on a committee to have traffic lights installed at the intersection. “He tried really, really hard but to no avail.”

MacDonald was on his way home from getting a haircut when the collision happened, she said.

Investigators ruled out criminal negligence in the collision, but police “still believe that (Rudderham) was responsible for the collision,” said Cape Breton Regional Police Service spokeswoman Desiree Vassallo.

He has been charged with failing to drive or operate a motor vehicle in a careful and prudent manner under the Motor Vehicle Act, she said. In addition to a fine, the charge carries a penalty of six demerit points.

Pink said Rudderham, who goes by his middle name, Parker, intends to plead not guilty in January, sending the matter to trial.

“Mr. Rudderham believes in principle. He’s not the type of person who pleads (guilty) to something that he didn’t do just to get out of it,” Pink said.

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“He could pay $399 and go home and accumulate six points and that’s it . . . but he definitely says that he was not driving carelessly or imprudently.”

Pink said his client is grieving for MacDonald’s family.