SAVANNAH, GA (CelebrityAccess) — A Georgia jury awarded $11.2 million to the family of a worker killed during the filming of the Allman Brothers biopic “Midnight Rider.”
The parents of Sarah Jones, a camera assistant on the movie who was killed by a train while filming on a Georgia railroad bridge in 2014, sued both the filmmakers, as well as railroad CSX Transportation.
On Monday, the jury found that both the filmmakers and CSX were culpable in the case, with the attorney for Jones' parents arguing that the railroad failed to take precautions that could have prevented the crash.
Judgements in the suit include $3.14 million from Randall Miller; $2 million from Rayonier Performance Fibers LLC, which owned the land where the tracks were located; $3.9 million from CSX; and $785,000 from Jody Savin, Miller's wife and business partner.
Attorneys for CSX laid the blame squarely at the feet of the filmmakers, noting that they had twice denied the production permission to shoot from the trestle bridge where the accident occurred.
The accident has already resulted in criminal charges, including for the film's director Randall Miller, who was sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty to involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespassing charges.
The crash put the kibosh on the film' production and it has remained in limbo since. – Staff Writers
