Filmmaker failures led to death of Deadpool 2 stuntwoman: Worksafe B.C. report
Credit to Author: Scott Brown| Date: Wed, 02 Oct 2019 20:53:13 +0000
Worksafe B.C. says multiple safety violations contributed to the death of stuntwoman Joi Harris during the filming of Deadpool 2.
Harris was killed on Aug. 14, 2017, while performing a stunt at Jack Poole Plaza in Downtown Vancouver. Harris was ejected from her motorcycle — a Ducati Hyperstrada 939 — and crashed into a plate-glass window at the Shaw Tower.
In its incident investigation report, Worksafe B.C. says TCF Vancouver Productions Ltd.. a subsidiary of Twentieth Century Fox, the film studio behind the Deadpool franchise, failed to: conduct a risk assessment; provide new worker orientation; ensure Harris was wearing a helmet; and ensure the health and safety of its workers.
“TCF failed to ensure that the workplace was designed with safety controls in place so that the stunt performer or the motorcycle could not proceed beyond the perimeter of the film set. Barriers were absent that should have prevented the stunt performer and motorcycle from leaving the set perimeter,” the report said.
According to her website, Harris received her race licence in 2013 and began racing in 2014. She described herself as the first African-American woman to compete in an American Motorcyclist Association-sanctioned event.
The stunt, performed on a much more powerful motorcycle than those she raced on the track, was reportedly Harris’s first job in the movie industry.
The stunt called for Harris, who was performing as stunt double for actress Zazie Beetz, to ride the motorcycle out the front doors of the Vancouver Convention Centre, narrowly missing a stunt person and causing him to drop an ice cream cone.
A second stunt person was then supposed to ride a bicycle over the ice cream cone and crash into a balloon stand.
The stunt turned tragic when Harris lost control of the motorcycle after the near miss and was ejected when it struck a median. She sustained fatal injuries when she collided with the Shaw Tower across the street.
In the Worksafe B.C. report, a Deadpool 2 crew member, whose name was redacted, stated that Harris’s activity wasn’t considered dangerous.
“The dangerous thing was the kid on the bicycle. Crashing. So that was the danger of this scene. He was falling off his bike, on concrete, into a balloon stand,” the crew member said.
A stunt safety inspection checklist was not completed because Harris’s activity wasn’t recognized as stunt work.
The report says the Ducati motorcycle was equipped with a kill switch on the right handlebar and a secondary kill switch, attached to the rider by a lanyard, on the right side of the motorcycle.
“When the motorcycle is being driven and is purposely or inadvertently spilled by the stunt person, the lanyard is pulled from the secondary kill switch and the engine immediately stops running. This prevents the motorcycle from continuing on under its own power, out of control,” the report states.
Harris was not wearing the lanyard at the time of the accident.
WorkSafeBC is now considering a penalty based on the findings of the report.
Harris’s family reached an out-of-court settlement with 20th Century Fox in April, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Vancouver police investigated but determined that a criminal investigation was not warranted.