According to the last statistics available (for the year 2006), the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports five occupational fatalities (four because of transportation accidents) in the motion-picture business.
Injuries are even harder to calculate. The government reports 1,190 occupational injuries in the motion picture industry for 2006. There were 270 actor injuries. Stunt performers are listed in another category, which includes circus performers and magicians; the group sustained 230 injuries in 2006.
Still, these statistics present only part of the picture because the U.S. government doesn't calculate deaths or injuries that happen outside the United States, such as those on Bond or Batman.
Stunt people say many injuries are never made public, mostly because they themselves don't want to hurt their own reputations and possibly stymie further employment.
Preventive efforts
Even those who don't work directly for studios agree with much of what Martin says. For instance, Kent Jorgensen, the chairman of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees' safety committee, says: "It seems like it's getting safer. Because of the awareness of safety and corporatization of the industry, there's a lot more emphasis on safety. The employers have instituted training. They have created better communications. They're providing industrial prevention programs."
Jorgenson dates the steady improvement to a tragic accident 13 years ago, when a grip fell from the rafters and died during the making of "Indian in the Cupboard."
This said, he points out it's much easier for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to institute safety regulations for set construction than for stunts, which can be inherently dangerous. "OSHA has a hard time covering stunts because of what they're doing," says Jorgensen. "It's like trying to cover a circus act. How do you do a rule for jumping off a building into an air bag? They base it on the professionalism of the people. They're trusting the professionalism of the people to be an adequate form of doing things safely."
Howard Keyes, the president of Local 767, Motion Picture Studio First Aid Employees, says there are gaps in the system.
"The studios have safety departments that are very proactive," says Keyes. "They're making sure the safety guidelines are followed, whereas independent producers, they don't have somebody looking over their shoulders to speak of. They try to cut corners where they can. Safety is one of the things they try to get away with. Sometimes they don't have the proper equipment to make things perfectly safe. On a tight budget, they're in a hurry to do something."
Even if stunts are safer these days, it's probably impossible to totally eradicate injuries, the inevitable accidents that come with trying to satisfy an audience's appetite for heart-stopping thrills. Common sense says that if you push the envelope, you increase the peril as well. "Everything has a risk," says IATSE's Jorgenson. "You try to minimize the risk."
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rachel.abramowitz@latimes.com
