FORT KENT – A prominent businessman from Edmundston, New Brunswick, died instantly Saturday afternoon in a head-on collision between his motorcycle and a pickup truck driven by a Frenchville man, Fort Kent Police Chief Doody Michaud said Sunday.

Jacques Gallant, 54, who owned the Edmundston ski center Mont Farlagne, and the metal recycling outfit Gallant Enterprises Ltd., and his wife, Jeanne D’Arc Gallant, 50, were heading east on Route 1 in Fort Kent at the time of the accident, Michaud said.

Neither of them was wearing a helmet.

The Fort Kent Police Department received a call at 3:47 p.m. Saturday about a “bad motorcycle accident on Route 1,” about four miles from the center of town, the chief said.

Officer Chuck Richards arrived to find Gallant dead at the scene, his wife badly injured, and a Frenchville man in shock.

Police learned that Reno Voisine, 47, who owns a cedar mill in Frenchville, was driving his 2004 Dodge pickup truck east on Route 1 when a friend waved to him from the side of the road.

Voisine turned around at the next driveway, headed west and tried to turn left into the friend’s driveway. Michaud said the move cut into the path of Gallant’s motorcycle and the two vehicles collided head-on.

Voisine said he never saw the motorcycle, Michaud said.

Voisine was the only person in his truck, and Michaud said he did not know whether he was wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. He said the motorcycle was demolished and that damage to the front end of the truck and attached plow was estimated at $20,000.

Fort Kent police were assisted at the scene by Maine State Police and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife.

Jeanne D’Arc Gallant was taken to Northern Maine Medical Center in Fort Kent for injuries, including a broken jaw and trauma to the head and chest. She later was taken to Edmundston Regional Hospital, where she remained Sunday in critical condition. Voisine was taken to the Fort Kent hospital to be treated for shock and later was released.

Police said speed was not a factor in the accident, which still is under investigation.

Michaud said charges may be pending in the case, but that a report on the accident will be turned over to the Aroostook County District Attorney’s Office and that officials there will make a determination on the matter.