Robert David MacRitchie was riding a bicycle on Lincoln Road in Fredericton the night he was killed by a drunk driver because he wouldn't get behind the wheel with even a minimal amount of alcohol in his system.

The bitter twist to the tale of MacRitchie's death last July — that he avoided driving after a few drinks that night even though he would legally have been under the limit — was told to Don MacRitchie by a friend of his son. 

MacRitchie was speaking about his dead son outside the Fredericton courthouse where the family submitted victim-impact statements on Thursday during a sentencing hearing for the man who ran him over.

Peter Leon Howe, 42, left the scene of the crash on Lincoln Road in Fredericton, but turned himself in to police 20 minutes later. He pleaded guilty last month to impaired driving causing death.

Thursday's hearing was moved to a bigger courtroom to accommodate the friends and family who turned out to hear the victim impact statements.

Faye MacRitchie, trying to give Judge Graydon Nicholas, the lawyers and Howe a sense of who her 23-year-old son was, told the court a story about how just a month before he was killed, Robbie had stopped a man from driving under the influence.

"He brought the keys into the house from the man. We went into the house after that," she said. "He put the man's keys on the key hook behind the door, and he said he still has … his car, his licence, and his life."

In court, Howe apologized to the the MacRitchies and to his own family. He said he wished he could bring MacRitchie back.

Don MacRitchie said it was good to finally hear those words.

"I feel sorry for him and what's going on in his life," he said of Howe. "I'm glad to hear him speak. I'm glad to hear that he feels in his heart that this is a serious thing. At first we weren't sure if that was it, if there was any remorse."

The MacRitchies now say they're getting involved with Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

"We're going to offer what talents and skills we have to them," said Don MacRitchie. "Try to get the message out. That's what we've got to do — we've got to get the message out. Everybody who has taken a drink has probably driven when they shouldn't have — got to change that."

Nicholas will sentence Howe on March 29.