I suppose that I might have heard of this earlier if I were a true movie nut but I only stumbled across it today. I remember the last time that Hollywood had a case of negligent homicide on its hands, the 1982 filming of "The Twilight Zone" that claimed the life of Vic Morrow and two child actors when a helicopter crashed onto them. There were safety issues that could have been better in that case but in the end the director (John Landis) was found not guilty.
This time, though, I'm thinking that the director will probably have some jail time coming.
This happened in late February in Georgia. The independent film production crew were filming a biopic of Gregg Allman (with William Hurt...yeah, I know...in the lead role) and this particular scene was supposed to be a dream sequence that took place on a bed sitting on a railroad trestle over a river. The first paragraph of this story had me scratching my head as to why anyone would want to make a film about
Gregg Allman. Duane Allman, sure, that would be an interesting story but Gregg? Whatever.
Anyway...the director, some guy called Richard Miller decided that he just had to shoot this scene on the tracks of a live railroad. He asked permission and it sure doesn't sound as if the owner, CSX, gave it. So he did it anyway. And with almost zero safety precautions. I mean, at the very least they should have posted someone, say, five miles away with a radio or cellphone to warn them of an approaching train (moving at maybe 60mph) but instead they relied on seeing a train from the set. This gave them perhaps one minute to get off of the tracks, something that physically could not be done given the spot they were filming from...
Before Gilliard knew it, the train was upon her. She found herself clinging to one of the girders. But the blast of pressure and wind from the train’s passing ripped Gilliard’s left arm away from her body and straight into the train. It snapped like a stick. With one hand still on the girder, Gilliard looked down and saw bone sticking out of her sweater. And then she saw blood. She grabbed a sheet that had come loose from the mattress and wrapped her bleeding arm inside it. With the train howling past just inches behind her, Gilliard threw herself onto two metal wires that stretched between the girders and along the gangplank, thrust her head out over the river below and shut her eyes. “I saw my life, my kids, my family, all of it before me,” she says. “I was sure I was going to die.”
One of the first things she saw when she opened her eyes again was a lifeless Jones, her body and face mangled. Like Gilliard, Jones had tried to find shelter on the gangplank. But when the train hit the bed and mattress, it sent debris flying. Something may have hit Jones, possibly propelling her into the train’s path. In the melee, Miller also fell on the tracks. A still photographer nearby managed to pull him away just in time. He was sobbing, Gilliard says, trying to cope with the disaster. Hurt also survived unscathed. The traumatized crew helped collect Jones’ body. A team of paramedics arrived within 20 minutes, and a helicopter touched down shortly after.
Sarah Jones was a camera assistant on the set. Gilliard was a hairstylist. Perhaps if William Hurt had been ground into hamburger we might have heard more about this.
Me? I'm guessing that the director and some of the producers will be looking at a minimum of manslaughter and perhaps even some version of homicide less than first degree.
