One of the more tragic stories that has developed over the last few months is that of the death of Sarah Jones, a 27-year-old camera assistant working on the Midnight Rider Gregg Allman biopic. Her death was the unfortunate result of a train accident, but several mistakes were made, and the director Randall Miller issued a statement taking full responsibility for the tragedy.
Miller was sentenced to a 10-year prison sentence, and will serve two years in jail and the following eight on probation, in addition to a $20,000 fine and 360 hours of community. Deadline, who published the statement, have said that Miller is the first filmmaker who will go to jail for an on-set death. Certain conditions of negligence, including the fact that the crew was denied permission to film on the tracks, may explain that.
Here’s the full statement:
On Feb 20th, 2014, a great number of mistakes were made and the terrible accident occurred which took Sarah Jones’ life. It was a horrible tragedy that will haunt me forever. Although I relied on my team, it is ultimately my responsibility and was my decision to shoot the scripted scene that caused this tragedy.
I pleaded guilty for three reasons: first, to protect my wife and family; second, out of respect for the Jones family and to not put them through a difficult trial; and, third, to take responsibility for my failure in not knowing that every safety measure was in place.
The location manager, the production designer, the unit production manager, the cinematographer, assistant director and others all made mistakes that led to this, but I have taken responsibility because I could have asked more questions, and I was the one in charge. I have worked in the film industry as a director for 25 years and never had a significant accident of any kind on any one of my sets.
I am heartbroken over this. I hope my actions have spared the Jones family more anguish and that the on-set safety measures that were lacking before this terrible tragedy will now take precedence for all in the industry.