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On the 30th anniversary of the tragic accident on the set of "Twilight Zone: The Movie" that took the lives of actor Vic Morrow, Myca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Chen (age 6), I took a look back at the incident and examined the current state of movie set safety in a cover story in Weekly Variety, below. If the film were shot today, the hazardous elements (helicopters, explosions, etc.) could be shot separately, then digital composited into the same frame as the actors in postproduction. But the same could be said of a shot in director Michael Bay’s Paramount feature “Transformers: Dark of the Moon" (2011) that critically injured Gabriella Cedillo, a 24-year-old aspiring actress was earning $8.25-an-hour as a non-union background extra. |
The incident occurred on Sept. 1, 2010, in in Hammond, Ind., while filming a scene involving a flatbed truck pulling a stunt car for a “cable-pull rollover”stunt, or gag. When the mechanism on the truck jerked back the tow cable, flipping the car, the weld attaching the tow hitch bracket to the car failed, sending the cable and the bracket whipping across the median, smashing through the windshield of a 2006 Toyota Scion going 40-50 mph in the opposite direction and striking the head of Cedillo, who had been paid an extra $25 to drive her own car for the sequence.
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Indiana OSHA ruled the incident an accident, stating in its report that the production “used all safety practices put in place by OSHA standards” and Cedillo was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
But Cedillo's attorney Todd A. Smith says, "She was exactly where they told her to be. [The extras] were being warned on walkie talkies to watch for debris, like if a wheel or another car part might come flying at them from the crashing of these vehicles that was going on a matter of feet away.” In May 2012, Cedillo received an $18.5 million settlement for the injuries she suffered. “She needs a large recovery because she needs someone around 24-7 to keep an eye on her," Smith says. "She’s 26-years old. She needs assisted care for the rest of her life, and she’ll likely live a normal life expectancy, so we’re talking 50 years. So before people start saying she’s won the lottery, you wouldn’t want to change places with her for any amount of money." Click here to read the story in Variety. |
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Below is a video footage of the "Twilight Zone" accident. WARNING: Although there is no blood (Morrow and the children seem to disappear as the rotor blades hit them), it is quite disturbing.
As part of my exploration of the state of set safety for Variety, I also talked to '70s superstar Burt Reynolds about the various broken bones, burns and near-misses he's had over the course of his career. Read it here.
Also check out a Q&A with Reynolds I did for The Hollywood Reporter back in 2010.
Also check out a Q&A with Reynolds I did for The Hollywood Reporter back in 2010.
