Roger Calkin: Drowning victim's father on the coroners report into Sandy Calkin's death in Wellington Harbour

A coroner's report says a man who drowned on Wellington's waterfront may not have, if the council's safety procedures had been better.  

Open Justice reports 30-year-old Sandy Calkin drowned in Wellington Harbour in 2021 after accidentally falling in after drinking on Courtney Place.  

Coroner Katherine Greig's report says Wellington City Council knew about identified safety risks at the waterfront but failed to act on them.   

The report says the risks were identified in 2013 and since then, seven people have drowned in the harbour.  

It also found there was no council record or investigation into any of those deaths. 

The victim’s father, Roger Calkin, told Nick Mills the fact that his son’s death could’ve been prevented is absolutely gutting, but it justifies everything they’ve been pushing for for over three years. 

He says it’s a bit of a struggle seeing the situation playing out in the media like it is, but it’s got to be done. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Wellington Mornings podcast with Nick Mills
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
A'd be joining me out now on the show as
Sandy Colkin's father, Roger Colkin. He's joining us on the show.

Speaker 3 (00:19):
Good morning, Roger, good morning, thank you. How are you today?

Speaker 2 (00:22):
I'm good, thank you. More to the point, how are
you today?

Speaker 3 (00:26):
Oh yeah. It's a little bit of a struggle seeing
playing out in the media like it is, but it's
got to be done. You know. It's a pretty important topic,
I feel, and there's been a lot said, there's been
a lot of misinformation out there as well, and I'm
pleased to see that the coroner's report has recognized the

(00:51):
inadequacies of the what's been happening down on the waterfront
and that there has been some significant issues around safety
down there that have not been addressed properly by the
council and animals please. You know, you've got the operational
people within council like Paul Andrews and Shane Binney are

(01:15):
pushing for a much better attitude towards safety down here
and that's really good to see and I'm hoping that
that goes up through to other councilors. Up to the
councilors and the executive leadership team and that they push
for it as well.

Speaker 2 (01:35):
Roger, I read the coroner's report just before I hopped
into bed last night. I didn't have a very good
night's sleep because one line, one line, maybe think of
you and your family, this life could have been prevented.
This is your son. I mean, how does that make
you feel when you read that one line?

Speaker 3 (01:57):
I mean, absolutely gatted. But I may just justifies everything
we've been pushing for for the last three and a
half years. I mean have some I do have some tuns.
I mean I listened to to you and Ray Chung
talking earlier on I mean, you know you talked about
the area in front of down in front of Frankett's
part where the rocky areas, which is called the rip rap.

(02:20):
I mean, Ray should know that that wasn't included as
as part of the proposal to Bellustrade. That's they're looking
at illustrating that as as as as part of the
bellustrating proposal. That's that's never been part of They looked

(02:41):
at it, and they've got other works that they're doing
down there to keep to keep people safe down there.
But dellustrating was never part of that. He should know
that as a councilor. It surprises me that he doesn't
and someone is standing for me. Yeah, that's right. It's
just that that just blows me away, to be frank.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Well, you know, even me as a talk back I
should have known that. I should have known that it
wasn't part of it as well. But I mean, that's
that's part of our problem, isn't it, Roger, that we're
not getting all the information.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
Yeah, yeah, I mean if you and the guys talking
about you know, well what happens down Oriental Parde, Well,
if you walk down Oriental Parade along the walkway there
and there is a balustradia, it's a concrete one the
way down and around. If you go and look at
from point Journing Him down to Evans Bay where they

(03:31):
put the new cycle ways and things, and it's all
balustrated where there is a fall off into the water.
Because it seemed as yeah, the right thing to do.
It's it's it's a no brainer. There was no kickback
about that. It all looks really tidy, it looks really nice.
My personal opinion is that a decent balustrade down there

(03:53):
will actually enhance the ability of Wellingtonians to interact with
the water because they can go down there. I've been
down there with council offices, and since the temporary fencing
has been put in, I've seen people leaning against the
temporary fencing and looking out over the water and enjoying
the water because they're right next to it. They can

(04:13):
look down into the water and lean against something.

Speaker 2 (04:17):
Roger, have you had any contact from city councilors or
the mayor? Has anyone contacted you?

Speaker 3 (04:21):
And not not some sandy diag No? No, not all,
not once. I mean I've had a little bit of
chat with Bray Hung on his Facebook pagets about it,
and but that's about it, you know, And there was
I think we went.

Speaker 2 (04:40):
Roger, can I just ask you a question and you
would have listened to the show. You would have known
that we've done this many times because someone would have
run you and said they're talking about Sandy, so you
would have switched on and listened. You know that the
public do not want fencing?

Speaker 3 (04:54):
Why, I just don't think that well for us out
the public has actually read the Corona's findings. I don't,
I don't and I don't actually agree that it's the
public I think. I think there's a certain percentage of
the public that are quite the vocal against it, and
they there these are emotive issues that they haven't actually

(05:14):
thought about. I mean, I've had people say to me, oh,
but if you put fencing up down there, you won't
be able to see the water, and that's just rubbish,
absolutely rubbish. It's a very short piece of waterfront that
we're talking about, you know, comparatively short piece of waterfront
that we're talking about. Water Taking Zealand has identified it

(05:37):
as a hot spot for drownings.

Speaker 2 (05:41):
Have you had any contact with other people that have
lost loved.

Speaker 3 (05:44):
Ones, Like I said, I've had a little bit of
contact with Isaac Clebbings's father, very similar situation where they
had reports one and in the recent past actually about
that being an unsafe area and possibly that they were
going to be that that there could be a drowning there.

(06:06):
And sure enough, eight months after the last round, seven
or eight months after the last rounding, that's when it's
the Glibings went in that very spot, very similar to
what happened with Sandy. Sandy we had reports identifying that
as a safety hazard. Spot going back as far as
actually two thousand and five. If you look at the

(06:26):
lighting reports that said the lighting down there was insufficient
and that's never changed.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
What needs to happen now, what's the next move? What's
going to happen? What do you want to see happen
right now?

Speaker 3 (06:37):
They just need to allocate the money to that. The
operational people have all already got planned. They just need
to allocate the money to do that. I know there's
been some talk about thirty million dollars and all that.
My understanding is that that thirty million dollars figet came
from a report that talked about earthquake strengthening. It's got

(07:01):
to be done anyway at some stage, and that's included
in that thirty million dollars something. Do you really want
a waterfront area down there with a big wharf area
down there? That's not earthquake, it's not a earthquake standard.

Speaker 2 (07:16):
Seriously, Roger, I appreciate you coming on the show, and
I know none of us, none of us could know
how you're feeling, none of us, but I know reading
that last night, definitely, reading the coroner's report last night
definitely affected me emotionally. So I can only but imagine
how it was with your family. Appreciate all the work

(07:38):
that you do and yeah, all the very very best.
Please keep in touch with us.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
Yeah, thanks for you understanding too. They can appreciate all
the week you've done as well on the show and
bring insing, raising issue and actually making people aware of
what's going on behind this.

Speaker 2 (07:55):
Thank you. Love to the family are Yeah, thanks Mane. Okay,
Roger Colkin, who I've never met, I don't know, but
feel for them. Gosh, I'm watching Lockerbye at the moment.
I don't know whether any of you have been watching it,
but that father's passion to want to have some reason
for losing a loved one, I get it. I totally

(08:15):
get it. I totally get it.

Speaker 1 (08:18):
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