Midnight Rider director Randall Miller has become the first film-maker to be jailed for an on-set fatality in the US after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter after the death of camera operator Sarah Jones in February last year.
Miller, who also admitted criminal trespass, yesterday accepted a plea deal which saw him sentenced to two years behind bars plus eight years of probation and a $20,000 (£13,250) fine, according to Deadline. Jody Savin, Miller’s wife and collaborator, walked free from the court in Wayne County, Georgia, under the terms of the deal, despite having faced near-identical charges over the death of Jones, 27. Both film-makers had initially pleaded not guilty.
Production on Midnight Rider, a biopic of southern rocker Gregg Allman, was shut down in the wake of the accident on an active railroad trestle bridge high over the Altamaha River in Wayne County, Georgia. Jones died when a train hit a metal frame bed that had been placed on the track as part of a dream sequence featuring William Hurt as Allman on the first day of filming. Hurt and Miller were among cast and crew members who escaped unharmed, but Jones was knocked beneath the vehicle. Her death has galvanised safety campaigners in Hollywood, with a number of initiatives since introduced to improve conditions and encourage whistleblowers to report rogue operators.
Miller, who will also perform 360 hours of community service as part of his sentence, is expected to serve around a year of jail time. He will be banned from all film-making activities that include responsibility for the safety of film-set employees for the next 10 years.
Jones’s parents told reporters they hoped the jail sentence would encourage Hollywood to improve safety on film sets.
“We hope the sacrifice of our daughter’s life will continue to change the film industry,’ Jones’s father, Richard Jones, told reporters outside the courthouse. “I believe it sends a message, frankly, that if you do not respect those you’re in charge of, you may end up behind bars.”
He later told the Los Angeles Times: “We were never seeking revenge. We were always seeking accountability.”
Anger over Jones’s death was compounded following reports in March last year that Miller was seeking to finish Midnight Rider despite ongoing investigations. Savin received criticism after it emerged she told a meeting of local production crew that she and her husband made movies “by our own rules”, on the weekend prior to the accident.
Miller and his team were aware that the rail track was in use, but the director said during a related civil case in May 2014 that he had been told only two trains came through a day. In fact, the line is one of the busiest freight routes in Wayne County. Crew members had been told they would have 60 seconds to get off the track if a train did come through, but that proved not to be the case.
Miller also told the court in Savannah, Georgia, that he had not obtained written permission from railway operator CSX because it was not his job to do so. But he said the production did have permission to use the land from its owner, paper products firm Rayonier. CSX later said that it had twice denied the film-makers permission to use the line.
The Midnight Rider movie itself is now unlikely to ever be completed. Allman, lead singer in the Allman Brothers Band, sued Miller last year in an effort to prevent the director from reviving the film. The pair later made an out-of-court settlement, the terms of which were not disclosed.
The case is the most high-profile of its kind to hit Hollywood since 1982, when American Werewolf in London director John Landis and four associates were charged with involuntary manslaughter over the death of actor Vic Morrow and two child actors following a helicopter crash on the set of television series The Twilight Zone. Landis and his co-workers faced trial in 1986 and 1987, but were acquitted on all charges. However, the families of the deceased are believed to have collected millions of dollars in civil lawsuits.