N.B. man pleads guilty to failing breathalyzer in crash that killed Halifax's Wray Hart

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CTV Atlantic

Wray Hart, a well-known bottle collector in Halifax, was killed in January 2018 when he was struck and became pinned by a car.

The Nova Scotia Public Prosecution Service said Monday that Dennis Donald Patterson has pleaded guilty to a charge of causing death by driving with a blood alcohol level above .08.

Patterson was also charged with impaired driving causing death, dangerous driving causing death, and criminal negligence causing death.

He was charged in January 2018 following a crash in Halifax that claimed the life of Wray Hart.

Patterson, who is originally from Quispamsis, N.B., was an MBA student at Saint Mary's University at the time. He is scheduled to have a sentencing hearing on Nov. 21 at 1:30 p.m. at Halifax Provincial Court.

Hart, 62, died after then-23-year-old Patterson drove into building and damaged a utility pole at 1079 Queen St.

Hart was a fixture in the city’s downtown. He was often seen pushing a shopping cart piled high with recyclables near Queen Street and Spring Garden Road.

“He was the hardest-working man in Halifax,” Wray’s friend Vicky Israel told CTV News in January 2018.

Many times, Wray could be found along a pathway outside Halifax’s old library, on the sidewalk along Spring Garden Road or on Inglis Street.

“Just jovial, laughing, carrying on, the usual,” Israel said.

For Corinne MacLellan, memories of Wray included chatting with him on her way to and from work.

“It was impossible to come through here and not pass by Wray. He was the president of this corner,” she said.

MacLellan called it a passing friendship, one that meant they would see each other twice a day, five days a week.

“He had really, really kind eyes,” she said. “At the time for me it would have been a big city, anybody who's kind of friendly to you or shares a kind word is something special, he was that.”

With files from CTV Atlantic's Natasha Pace.