23/10/2021
Union rules exist for reasons and safety is #1. According to reports, union crew were replaced with non-union members before the accident.
RIP Halyna Hutchins
This is NOT an Alec Baldwin story, this is is a story about workplace safety. IATSE Local 600 DP, Halyna Hutchins, died today because she showed up to work. Her children were orphaned today because she showed up for work. She deserves more than a moment of silence. She deserves every crew member in this industry putting down their tools and walking off the job. Shut it down. This has to stop.
There have been other high-profile fatalities on film sets involving prop guns and sloppy safety measures.
In 1993, Brandon Lee, 28, son of the late martial-arts star Bruce Lee, died after being hit by a .44-caliber slug while filming a death scene for the movie “The Crow.” The gun was supposed to have fired a blank, but an autopsy turned up a bullet lodged near his spine.
Bruce Lee’s daughter, Shannon Lee, tweeted: “Our hearts go out to the family of Halyna Hutchins and to Joel Souza and all involved in the incident on “Rust.” No one should ever be killed by a gun on a film set. Period.”
In 1984, actor Jon-Erik Hexum died after shooting himself in the head with a prop gun blank while pretending to play Russian roulette with a .44 Magnum on the set of the television series “Cover Up.”
Serious and sometimes fatal film set accidents are rare but have increased in recent years.
A 38-year-old crew member last month sustained critical injuries after a major fall at Sunset Gower Studios in Hollywood during construction for the Netflix film “Me Time,” which stars Kevin Hart and Mark Wahlberg.
“The Walking Dead” stuntman John Bernecker died in 2017 from injuries sustained while filming a scene in Georgia for the AMC series’ eighth season.
In the same state, crew member Sarah Jones was killed in a 2014 train accident during the making of “Midnight Rider,” and her family was awarded $11.2 million after filing a wrongful-death lawsuit.
A year earlier, a helicopter pilot, camera operator and crew member were killed in a helicopter crash in Acton during the filming of a reality series for Discovery Channel, the worst film-set accident in California in three decades.
Every year crew members are killed falling asleep while driving home from outrageously long shoot days.
Nobody should have to die making Films and Television.
Thanks to Robert Daraio