Widow moves killer driver to tears
A young man wept in the dock of a Napier courtroom as he heard the widow of Nick Calavrias describe how deeply his loss had affected her and their family.
The court was filled with a large crowd of the late Wellington businessman’s family and friends, most of whom were wearing black armbands embossed with his name and the words ‘‘Our man of steel’’.
Samuel Trotter, 22, appeared in Napier District Court yesterday for sentencing after earlier pleading guilty to careless driving causing the death of Calavrias.
Calavrias, 67, of Wellington, was struck and killed while cycling along State Highway 1 near Taupo on January 7.
Trotter wept in the dock as Calavrias’s widow, Mariana, read her victim impact statement.
‘‘I am completely broken ... This unexpected tragedy has completely destroyed our small family,’’ she said.
‘‘Nick lived for us. He lived for life.’’
She said having lost a daughter to childhood cancer she was not sure she could cope with the loss of her husband of 46 years.
‘‘Life has lost its meaning for me. I have no sense of purpose ... I am alone in the golden years of my life,’’ she said.
She spoke of the huge mental and physical toll her husband’s death had taken.
She said Calavrias was very safety conscious and had spent a career putting people’s welfare ahead of profits, and there was a sad irony about the way he died.
‘‘He was our man of steel,’’ she said.
Calavrias’s oldest son Nicholas said the pain inflicted on his family was ‘‘insurmountable’’.
He said there were many unanswered questions.
‘‘The way dad died haunts us ... We are forced to read and see things we cannot un-read or unsee,’’
"This unexpected tragedy has completely destroyed our small family. Nick lived for us. He lived for life." Mariana Calavrias
he said.
‘‘Dad died without his dignity in one of the most violent ways you could imagine,’’ he said to Trotter.
‘‘Our lives are now consumed with negativity and hurt ... time is not healing,’’ he said.
‘‘My children are broken,’’ he said.
‘‘He was not ready to go. This was not on his terms. This was easily preventable and is a complete waste and destruction of my father’s life as well as our lives,’’ he said.
Trotter’s lawyer Cam Robertson said Trotter was genuinely remorseful and took full responsibility.
Judge Tony Adeane said cases like this were the most difficult to impose a sentence because they involved a momentary error that could, in other circumstances, have been inconsequential, but ‘‘in fact has the most terrible consequences’’.
‘‘It is a situation where the result is out of all proportion to the fault involved,’’ he said.
He sentenced Trotter to six months community detention and nine months supervision. He was disqualified from driving for 12 months.
Calavrias had left his Wharewaka holiday home 20 minutes before Trotter’s car struck him. He was intending to do his usual ride along the Taupo bypass and head back to his home via town.
The day was clear and sunny and the road was dry. He was wearing high-visibility yellow clothing and a helmet.
Trotter was driving north to Auckland from his home in Norsewood. As he came alongside the Taupo Moto X track his attention was drawn to it because he had done a school geography camp a few years earlier that included a visit to the track.
Trotter told police he fully turned his head to the left while looking at the track. In doing so, his car drifted left across the fog line.
The front left of his car struck Calavrias from behind.
It is believed Trotter was driving at 100kmh. Calavrias was projected 39.2 metres and came to rest to the left of the cycle lane. He suffered fatal injuries and died at the scene.
In 2009, senior management spoke of Calavrias as ‘‘a giant of the New Zealand steel industry’’, a man of passion, a keen negotiator with strategic insight and ‘‘compassion for fellow human beings’’.
He founded a steel firm with two business partners in 1976, which grew to employ 100 staff.
In 2009, Calavrias said he hoped he would be remembered for his determination in pushing through a safety culture in a company operating in a dangerous industry.
In 2010, he became an officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in the New Year honours, for services to business.
Calavrias was also a leader of Wellington’s Greek community and organised a reunion for Greeks who moved to New Zealand as displaced people in 1951. His family fled Greece in that year as ‘‘displaced persons’’.