Safety Agency: 20th Century Fox Failed to Keep Actor Safe

Wednesday, June 15, 2016 | 0

British Columbia’s work-safety agency said an American film production company failed to ensure safe working conditions on the Canadian set of “Maze Runner: The Death Cure,” where actor Dylan O’Brien was injured in March, The Canadian Press reported.

WorksafeBC conducted a nine-hour inspection of the shooting location — an airport in Cache Creek, a village roughly 200 miles north of Vancouver — in May, concluding that Fox U.S. Productions 49 violated British Columbia’s Workers Compensation Act, The Canadian Press reported.

According to Yahoo UK, O’Brien, 24, was dragged from the top of one moving car and then hit by another in March in a stunt gone awry. He sustained a “concussion, facial fracture and lacerations” in the incident, the news outlet reported.

WorksafeBC’s report says the accident happened during the filming of a two-car action sequence that was changed at the last minute, the National Post reported.

“The transition from the trailing vehicle to the leading vehicle was changed to be done in one sequence instead of two. When the change was made to the sequence, there was no meeting held to review the changes with all involved,” the report says.

“The sequence now relied upon driver coordination and performance to keep the vehicles close enough during the transition, as the worker making the transition would end up rigged to the trailing vehicle but physically riding on the back of the leading vehicle,” the report continues. “The change to the action sequence increased the risk of injury as the transition was now between two vehicles that were not connected.”

Because the safety harness holding O’Brien was not long enough, “this resulted in the worker being pulled off the leading vehicle, striking the ground due to the length of rope and then being partially suspended in front of the trailing vehicle,” which resulted in “a serious injury to the worker,” the National Post reported based on WorksafeBC’s report.

In a statement to Yahoo UK, a 20th Century Fox spokesman rejected the report, saying the stunt was rehearsed five times before the incident.

“While we don’t agree with all of the findings of the Inspection Report, we deeply regret that this terrible accident occurred and the serious injuries it caused to Dylan O’Brien,” Chris Petrikin told Yahoo UK. “We have been working with WorksafeBC to try to correct some inaccuracies in the inspection report and appreciate Worksafe’s willingness to discuss our concerns. Our primary concern now is Dylan’s full recovery from this accident.”

WorksafeBC ordered 20th Century Fox to prepare a notice of compliance report by today, The Canadian Press reported.

The movie’s February 2017 release date has been pushed back to January 2018, Yahoo UK reported.