Stuntman Suffers Serious Work Injuries in Spider-Man Show

Thursday, December 30, 2010 | 0

By Zachary Sacks
Sacks & Zolonz

As discussed in previous posts, the importance of maintaining a safe work environment cannot be overstated. By providing employees with a safe work environment, you can avoid serious and potentially debilitating work injuries, as well as avoid the incurrence of associated expenses (legal fees, large fines, increased workers' compensation costs, etc.).

Unfortunately, the creative elements behind the much-discussed (and much-maligned) Broadway production, "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark," may not fully appreciate this fact.

On Monday, 32-year-old Christopher Tierney a stuntman who performs complex aerial acrobatics as part of the $65 million show was seriously injured when he fell 30 feet into the orchestra pit before a packed audience.

Federal and state investigators later determined that the primary cause of Tierney's accident was a failure by the crew to attach his safety harness.

Tierney, who suffered severe internal injuries and several cracked ribs in the fall, was scheduled for back surgery on Wednesday.

"Chris was not nervous in the least about this," said his brother, Patrick Tierney, "He's 32, [he] just wanted to go up and fly."

The Spider-Man musical which is still only running trial performances at the Foxwoods Theatre in New York City has already seen its fair share of work injuries. To date, four performers (including Tierney) have been injured on the production.

As for Tierney, his future seems uncertain.

"I don't know when he'll be back on stage, if at all," said his brother.

Stay tuned for further developments in the area of workers' compensation defense law ...

Zachary Sacks is a founding partner of Sacks & Zolonz, a Southern California workers' compensation defense firm. This column was reprinted with his permission from his blog, http://www.californiaworkerscompensationdefenseattorneys.com/