A father whose sons were almost victims of a Dubbo weir has demanded action to stop it claiming more lives.
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Keith Newman gave thanks the day his two sons and foster son returned home alive after getting too close to the “death trap”.
Upset that two families have not been as lucky since then, he called for Dubbo City Council to make the South Dubbo weir safer as a matter of urgency.
He, supported by his son, rejected Dubbo mayor Mathew Dickerson’s preference to wait on the Coroner’s report into the recent death of 19-year-old James Kennedy.
"Something needs to be done before someone else drowns," Mr Newman said.
"Summer is coming, kids will be down there."
Mr Newman had not said anything after the near-miss about 10 years ago but his memory of it and recent events prompted him to approach the Daily Liberal.
"One of my sons is a scientist now and the other two boys work in Dubbo," he said.
"They would have been a loss to the community, as are the kids who drowned."
Mr Newman argued the weir was a separate problem from the river.
The building consultant suggested rocks should be put on the lower level of the weir to reduce the water’s turbulence.
"It’s not a big job, the council is spending millions of dollars on Apex Oval," he said.
Mr Newman said his boys knew rivers but not weirs and son Saul backed the call for action.
The 26-year-old remembered well the day a fun trip had almost brought tragedy.
He had been studying for school exams when his younger brother asked to go to the Macquarie River.
Together with a boy in their parents’ care they went in, Saul on an inflatable boat and the other boys on boogie boards.
Their encounter with the weir was "unexpected".
"All you can see is a line, then it drops away," Saul said.
"You can’t see the white water."
They were too close to avoid it and Saul realised the younger boys were in trouble.
"I dragged out Ryan, who’d been getting pushed to the bottom, and was bouncing up for a couple of seconds and then being pushed back down," he said.
He had "no idea" where the other boy was until he "bumped into him" and "grabbed him" - the boy had not come to the surface.
"They’d been under for a minute," Saul said.
"It was scary and they were panicking, which made it worse."
The two younger boys’ training to swim downstream was a mistake because the backflow into the weir was really fast, Saul said.
"I realised we couldn’t get out by going downstream, I took the boat across the river," he said.
Although he had been to the weir since, Saul was adamant he would not go in the water again.
Signs at the weir were not enough to keep young people safe, he said from Canberra, where he is studying for a PhD in human genetics.
"The signs didn’t convey a real danger of drowning," he said.
"I don’t think putting them up absolves you of having something that kills people.
"If it were a building that periodically collapsed and killed people, you wouldn’t tolerate it."