"Witnesses and [stunt coordinator] Dixon all said that a formal stunt plan . . . was not prepared," the report said. "The only plan used was one locating the prop boats, cameras and positions of the stunt crew in the scene." (Dixon declined to comment on the report; Brubaker did not return calls.)
Workplace safety officials in Florida said last week that they were still investigating the accident.
Scott Wilder still wonders how it all went so terribly wrong. But the questions gnawing at him go beyond the particulars of what happened that day.
"Stunts have been my life since I was a child," Wilder, 33, said in an interview with The Times. "My father is a stuntman. I did my first commercial at 3 and my first stunt at 9. It's always been my intent to be a stuntman and filmmaker, and I'm not sure where I am right now."
He is still a staunch defender of the stunt business and bristles at any suggestion that it is too dangerous. He says he doesn't plan to sue, and he criticizes Sonja Davis' family for doing so.
"I have no blame for anybody other than myself," he said. "She was in my arms. She was depending on me to save her."
He sees God's hand--not just the foibles of human beings--in the tragedy that took his wife.
"I've got to accept that fact that God stepped in and what happened was meant to be," Wilder said. "There's a reason that we don't know now, and we may never know.
"Hopefully, it will makes us all stronger and smarter people."
