Stunt Mishap During Filming of Transformers 3 Spawns Suit

Submitted by Bob Jacobson on Mon, 01/10/2011 - 09:38

 

In October of 2010 Carlos Sadovi of the Chicago Tribune wrote an article about an extra in the movie, Transformers 3, who was seriously injured during the shooting of a stunt for the film. The lawsuit claims that Gabriela Cedillo was permanently brain damaged as a result of the accident.
 
Snapped Cable sends Stunt Car Flying into Oncoming Traffic
 
The article said in part:
Cedillo was among 80 extras and was driving her own car in the westbound lanes of a vacated part of Cline Avenue for the stunt, according to the lawsuit. While she and the others were driving, stunt vehicles were being towed by flatbed trucks in the opposite lanes at 50 mph, the suit states. 
The stunt called for two of the towed vehicles to rise in the air and then flip "by use of a pulling cable with the idea being to cause violent rolls of the cars involved," her lawyers said. On the day of the accident, a cable and bracket attached to the bottom of a stunt car closest to Cedilla and the other extras snapped, the lawyers said.  The vehicle became "airborne into the oncoming lanes, striking Ms. Cedillo’s hood, windshield and eventually her head," the lawyers said.
Among other issues, the lawsuit alleges that movie officials were negligent through faulty welding and the design of the bracket and allowed extras to be too close to the stunt.
Worker’s Compensation Issues Not Addressed
The article did not address possible issues involving worker’s compensation. It is possible, assuming Ms. Cedillo was a paid employee as an extra, that she would be precluded from making any kind of negligence claim against her employer, the movie company.  She might be allowed to make the claim if the facts show that the entity responsible for the faulty welds was an independent contractor not connected with the movie company directly.  A suit might also be allowed for negligence if Ms. Cedillo herself was working as an independent contractor as an extra rather than as an employee.  Worker’s Compensation law generally prohibits any action for negligence against one’s employer with the benefits under a particular state’s worker’s compensation law being the injured worker’s sole remedy for injury while on the job.