With footage of the 2014 Midnight Rider accident circulating online, here’s what you need to know about the incident that resulted in Sarah Jones’ death.
From Brandon Lee being accidentally shot on The Crow set to Rust cinematographer Halyna Hutchins being accidentally shot and killed by Alec Baldwin, Hollywood certainly isn’t exempt from suffering tragedies while trying to finish their projects.
One of the most notable on-set fatalities is that of camera assistant Sarah Jones while she was working on the movie Midnight Rider.
Due to footage of the event being recently circulated on social media, Jones’ tragic passing has been brought up once again as spectators want to know what happened that day. Warning: Some may find this content distressing.
Sarah Jones death on Midnight Rider set explained
Midnight Rider, a biographical drama film based on the novel ‘My Cross to Bear’ by rock singer Gregg Allman, started production in 2014 with William Hurt, Zoey Deutch, Eliza Dushku, and Wyatt Russell set to star.
On February 20, the first official day of filming, the movie’s production crew was set up on an active railroad trestle bridge over the Altamaha River in Wayne County, Georgia. The plan was to conduct a “camera test” for a dream sequence that would have seen Hurt (portraying Allman) on a heavy metal hospital bed on the live railway.
The crew tried to conduct the test after two CSX trains passed by – but a third train unexpectedly approached where the crew was located and they all had around a minute to get to safety.
Footage shows that the crew didn’t realize how fast the train was approaching (it’s said to have been running at 58 miles per hour) and they tried to remove camera equipment and the metal bed from the trestle before the train could hit it.
They failed to remove the bed before the train came through and many of the crew were trapped on the trestle, including Jones. The train struck and shattered the metal bed, causing metal fragments to hit Jones which, in turn, caused her to fall towards the train, killing her instantly.
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As per a report from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, via The Hollywood Reporter, her cause of death was listed as “multiple injuries due to railroad train,” having “died of multiple injuries sustained as a pedestrian struck by a railroad train while at work on a movie location.” It was also classified as an “accident” in the report.
After the incident, director Randall Miller, screenplay writer Jody Savin, executive producer Jay Sedrish, and first assistant director Hillary Schwartz were charged with involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass by the Wayne County Sheriff’s Office.
According to Sergeant Ben Robertson’s incident report, Sedrish wasn’t complying with CSX’s request for the production to move to another location. He wrote, “In my presence, Mr. Sedrish was asked by an employee of CSX if he had permission to be on the trestle or tracks and Mr. Sedrish replied, ‘That’s complicated.'”
Two months after Jones’ passing, Allman sued both Miller and Sedrish to stop them from continuing the movie’s production, citing they had “failed to pay the agreed option price for the film rights or to start primary photography by the date stipulated in the option contract.” No verdict for this case has been publicly revealed as Allman and Miller’s lawyers decided to settle the matter out of court.
Miller and Sedrish were also sued by Jones’ parents, who filed a wrongful death claim against the producers and CSX one month after Allman’s suit. A jury determined both the production company and CSX had to pay the Joneses $11.2 million in damages.
On March 9, 2015, both Miller and Sedrish entered guilty pleas and were sentenced to 10 years: Miller served two years in prison before going on probation, while Sedrish’s sentence was limited to probation with no jail time.
Schwartz was also sentenced to 10 years’ probation after entering a guilty plea, while the charges against Savin were dropped after Miller agreed to plead guilty.
After the loss of Sarah Jones, no other production company has tried to finish Midnight Rider’s story and it’s unclear if they ever will.
