Andrew Pulver 

Midnight Rider film-makers charged over death of camera assistant Sarah Jones

Director Randall Miller among those charged with involuntary manslaughter in Georgia in wake of fatality on railway track during filming
  
  

Camera assistant Sarah Jones was remembered at this year's Academy Awards ceremony
Camera assistant Sarah Jones, who died during the filming of Midnight Rider Photograph: PR

The director, producer and unit production manager of the abandoned Gregg Allman biopic Midnight Rider have been charged with involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was hit by a train during filming on 20 February.

The district attorney's office in Wayne County, Georgia have ordered the charges after a grand jury returned an indictment on Wednesday. The trio charged are: Randall Miller, the film's director and credited co-writer and producer, Jody Savin (co-writer and producer) and Jay Sedrish (unit production manager and executive producer).

Jones died after she was hit by flying debris as a train unexpectedly passed through a filming location on rail tracks near Jesup, Georgia. Other members of the crew managed to scramble clear.

Although Miller apparently remained keen to finish the film, lead actor William Hurt left Midnight Rider shortly after the fatality and Allman, on whose autobiography the film was based, called for the project to be abandoned. Jones' family has also launched legal action against the film-makers, as well as Allman, claiming in a wrongful death suit that they had "falsely informed, or gave the impression to, the cast and crew, including Sarah, that they had received permission to conduct filming on the railroad track".

Miller told a court in May that he had not obtained written permission from railway operator CSX because it was not his job to do so, but that the production did have permission to use the land from its owner, paper products firm Rayonier.

 

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