Posted on 07/22/2017 10:58:23 AM PDT by Wolfie
Sarah Jones’ Family Awarded $11.2 Million in ‘Midnight Rider’ Suit
A Georgia jury has ruled in favor of Sarah Jones’ family in its civil suit against CSX Transportation in connection with the camera assistant’s 2014 death and awarded them $11.2 million.
The state court jury in Savannah, Ga., decided unanimously to award the family nearly $2 million for pain and suffering and $9.2 million for the economic loss from Sarah Jones’ life, according a spokeswoman for the attorneys for the family. The jury also assigned CSX 35% of the fault.
Other defendants are production company Film Allman and Rayonier.
Jones was killed and six others were injured on the set of “Midnight Rider” outside Doctortown, Ga., on a railroad trestle above the Altamaha River after a train came down the tracks at 58 mph during production. The crew had less than one minute to evacuate the location and the train ran into a metal bed being used by the crew for a scene that was part of a dream sequence in the Gregg Allman biopic. Jones was struck by shrapnel that propelled her toward the moving train.
Jones’ family sued CSX, alleging that the railroad did not follow company policy. Filmmaker Randall Miller settled with the family in late 2014 and spent a year in jail after pleading guilty to felony involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass.
The production company did not secure a permit from the owner of the tracks, CSX Transportation Corp. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued nearly $75,000 in safety fines. An appeals panel upheld the sanctions after they were challenged by Film Allman, the company that Miller and his wife, Jody Savin, set up to make the independent feature.
Jones’ family started the Safety for Sarah movement to advocate for increased safety in film production.
The parents, Richard and Elizabeth Jones, released a statement after the verdict:
“Elizabeth and I have spent the last 3 plus years wanting to understand how our daughter, Sarah Elizabeth Jones, tragically lost her life. That search has now come to a close.
Sarah’s life was a bright beacon of hope that was snuffed out too soon.
Elizabeth and I want to thank our attorney, Jeff Harris, his partners and exceptional staff, who worked so hard for Sarah. We also would like to thank our Columbia attorney Jake Moore for his guidance.
We felt that this trial was necessary in order to learn what happened that tragic day of February 20, 2014. It is only with the discovery of what could have been done differently that we might avoid another similar tragic loss of life.
We have learned much from this trial. No doubt that the decisions made by those in charge of Film Allman, LLC were foolish, criminal and, in our view, selfish. That said, this trial disclosed a number of exceptionally poor judgements and ignored opportunities by CSX Transportation to prevent this tragedy. Frankly, I believe that the evidence in this trial indicated that CSX has systemic issues that need corrected. We miss you Sarah.”
Because they had deep pockets.
Just what IS company policy for a locomotive traveling at 58 mph when encountering a metal bed being used by a film company illegally trespassing on a railroad bridge?
How can you be found guilty while conducting business, legally, on your own property?
You trespass at your own risk.
They have no permit to be filming on railroad tracks, place a metal bed on the train tracks and it's the CSX and the train's fault for hitting it?
Private businesses need to get together and create a fund to fight rediculous lawsuits. Individually, they can’t afford to fight and always end up settling which only encourages more rediculous lawsuits. If there were a fund CRX would surely appeal this.
So they are an evil Railroad Company.
Wondered why my stock was down.
The only way I could see CSX being at fault is if the train was exceeding the speed limit for that section of track.
And lawyers wonder why they're as despised as they are today.
I read about and watched a documentary about this, and the production company was told that they could not get a permit but filmed there anyway. I don’t know if they brought out any new fact during the trial, but I guess the railroad was guilty of having money.
Brilliant.
Was the train going faster than allowed on that section of track?
If no, was it physically possible for a train of that tonnage come to a stop in the distance between the obstruction and the point where it came into view of the driver?
If the answer to both of these questions is no then CSX just got screwed over.
This strikes me as the same sort of garbage where someone climbs over a fence past “No Trespassing” and “Beware of Dog” signs, breaks into a home, gets attacked by a dog, and then wins a lawsuit against the owners because their dog bit them!
Here’s what I found in another article:
The jury in Savannah heard testimony during the civil trial that two CSX trains rolled through while the movie crew stood on both sides of the tracks within an hour before the crash, but the operators of those trains never called dispatchers to alert them. Jurors also were shown a CSX policy that train operators are expected to immediately report trespassers on its tracks and rights of way.
Jeffrey Harris, the Jones family’s attorney, also noted that the train’s brakes weren’t applied until after the locomotive struck a hospital bed the filmmakers had placed across the tracks. Actor William Hurt, hired to play Allman, had been lying in the bed before the train came upon the crew at 53 mph (85 kph). Hurt escaped unharmed.
The family made a lot of money from the stupidity of everyone involved in that film shoot. CSX runs trains. Trains don’t stop on dime. Nobody has any business playing on the railroad tracks. I heard that from adults all my childhood.
Once upon a time these suits were thrown out by the judge. Then we got Critical Legal Studies as a required course in all the law schools wherein aspiring lawyers are taught how to use the law and the courts to destroy the Law and society. It did not affect much until the graduates of these courses started being appointed and elected to judgeships. Now any suit is legitimate if it goes after targets of which the judge disapproves. Juries receive these cases and assume that they are legitimate because they were accepted by the court to begin with.
CSX needs to start running all trains through Savannah at 5 MPH, during rush hour.
Juries rewarding stupid people is one reason we have so many slip-and-fall lawyers.
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