‘Star Wars’ Producer Fined $2M For Harrison Ford Injury
UK-based Foodles Production, the Disney-owned production company behind Star Wars: The Force Awakens that admitted to health and safety breaches following the accident that crushed Harrison Ford’s leg at Pinewood Studios in 2014, has been fined $1.95 million (￡1.6 million). The sentencing for violating the UK’s Health and Safety at Work Act came down today.
During production on the movie on June 12, 2014, Ford was pinned by a hydraulic door on the set of the Millennium Falcon spaceship during a rehearsal. In July, a Milton Keynes magistrates court heard that the accident could have killed the then-71-year-old, who was reprising his iconic role of Han Solo, comparing it to the force of being hit by a small car.
Ford was airlifted to a nearby hospital following the accident. He broke his tibia and fibula, dislocated an ankle and suffered a cut hand.
According to the Daily Mail, Judge Francis Sheridan said today Foodles had acting wrongly in failing to alert Ford to the dangers of the scene they were rehearsing. ‘The greatest failing of all on behalf of the company is a lack of communication, a lack because, if you have a risk assessment and you do not communicate it, what is the point of having one?” he said, according to the paper. “That is the most serious breach here.”
A representative of the British government’s Health and Safety Executive said, “The British film industry has a world-renowned reputation for making exceptional films. Managing on-set risks in a sensible and proportionate way for all actors and staff – regardless of their celebrity status – is vital to protecting both on-screen and off-screen talent, as well as protecting the reputation of the industry.”
Foodles said in a statement it “deeply regretted (this) unfortunate on-set accident.”
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