'Surround Us With Your Angels, Lord'

"Jones was gifted with optimism, a knack for following instructions and a can-do attitude that endeared her to nearly everyone she encountered."

The Hollywood Reporter has published the fullest account yet of the recent disaster at the bridge over the Altamaha River in Georgia where a passing train wreaked carnage on a movie crew filming on the tracks without permission to be there. Seven people were injured, hairstylist Joyce Gilliard severely, and 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Elizabeth Jones lost her life.

The article reports multiple safety and common sense violations on the part of producers and director. Production of the movie, a biopic of Gregg Allman of the Allman Brothers Band, has been suspended, and the Georgia police are investigating the accident as a negligent homicide.

The article was written by Scott Johnson, and it's excellent. Recommended reading, although it's certainly not an easy subject.

Mike
(Thanks to Jeffrey Goggin)

Original contents copyright 2014 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site.

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(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

David: "Thank you for the post; it is an excellent article. Absolutely no pun intended, but as the father of a 20+-year-old daughter, I lost it with the last two word of the article. It was just so senseless and avoidable."

George Feucht: "As a crew member on film shoots, I can tell you there are two forces at work which would put us in harm's way:

"First, we have to trust the producers that all the safety details have been worked out. How often does an office employee question the structural integrity of their office building or the air being clear of asbestos? Do you insist on the testing and documents before you start your work day? Of course not. You trust that these things are all taken care of by the powers that be. We film in strange locations all the time and need to have that same trust with each location. I was just filming in a car tunnel. I was told that the street was shut down for us. It was not realistic to go to the city permit office to confirm this. There are so many things that need to be managed by the large team of producers that the crew can't go and double check that everything that was told to them is true.

"Which leads to the second factor: We are hired (or rehired) constantly. We are all freelance and lobbying for our next job one month down the road. You need to have a reputation of being low-maintenance and easy to work with. If you are the annoying squeaky wheel on every show you are on, you won't be hired by those producers any more. They hate it when work is slowed by an individual constantly crying wolf. The tragedy is that sometimes the wolf is real."

Comments

[BWJones]

Such a sad story...

I don't know how often we have to hear the message "stay off the tracks" until it sets in our consciousness. Failing to get permission or establish appropriate filming permissions with security is at the very least, irresponsible. I don't know about negligent homicide, but its remarkably irresponsible of whomever the director was.

[Patrick Perez]

If I read the article correctly, it sounded like though this was a low budget production, it was a union one. It is sad that the various trades unions didn't insist on the proper safety protocols be followed. Not that I'm blaming the unions. If anything, I suspect the reason they didn't speak up (and maybe they did) is that they feared repercussions/retribution.

Patrick

[Mike Plews]

This is a tragedy for two crews, the film crew and the train crew.
The crew in the cab will have to deal with this for a lifetime and that's a tragedy too.

[Matthew Jude Brown]

I'd say that given that the errors here were made by people whose job it was to ensure permission and safety, some of whom for-sure knew that what they were doing was stupidly dangerous, that this meets the standard for negligent homicide.

Especially since this article makes it clear that the filming was on a bridge. If this was regular, flat ground I can see SOME reasoning to think that "Oh, it's easy to get off the tracks," but here it absolutely was NOT easy to get off the tracks.

[Roger Botting]

SOunds like a few people tried to work around barriers that were set up to protect them.
The lawyers are going to have their work cut out for them trying to protect the production company and the insurance company, if there is one.

[toto]

This kind of thing only happens to other people... until it happens to you.

[Don]

I still don't understand how you can get worked up about taking pictures on train lines and at the same time endorse taking pictures whilst driving.

[A. Costa]

With all due respect to the religious beliefs of everyone out there, putting willingly yourself and other 19 people in a situation where your careless behaviour and ignorance of proper safe measures could have terrible consequences, and then praying the Lord for protection is total absurdity. The burden of that injuries and death should be all on the shoulders of the participants.

[MartinP]

It is interesting that the crew apparently felt that standard safety precautions were absent before the incident, yet still felt obligated to carry out the shot. Is the cinema-industry employment situation so bad in USA that you are too scared not to work, even when you think you may well be killed? That in itself is scary. Worryingly, if the crew felt unsafe yet worked anyway (hence knowingly taking serious personal risk) then does this affect the liability of the management?

[Hélcio J. Tagliolatto]

And you so often warned us of the risks ...

[David Dyer-Bennet]

The headline reminds me of another aspect of the story, though. If they'd spent a few minutes in thought and discussing standard safety rules instead of praying for angels to save them, this whole thing might have been prevented.