Can anyone puzzle out what happened from this article? Was the entire film crew tresspassing?
I find it astoundingly odd for the article to leave out the obvious question of the underlying cause for this apparent misunderstanding about the rail traffic; while a film crew was placing a bed on the tracks for a film production.
I actually cannot believe that they overlooked that question, so by default, I have to assume the film crew were trespassing, and article is protecting them for some reason. It is just my assumption unless this obvious question is answered with another explanation.
Cannot say for sure, but I’d guess that the Railroad ( CSX )was not completely in the loop,if at all ? In 1998, I was on the edges of a OLI Instructional film that was filmed in North Georgia. It revolved around highway Grade Crossing incursion issues and regulations within the ‘then new’ Federal CDL program.
There was coordination and cooperation across the scale of the filming.Local Law Enforcement and State Levels also. NSRR was an active, and cooperating partner as was the State Trucking Assoc. . IT was done as safely, and professionally, as any interaction between automotive traffic and rail traffic could be done.
Sounds like the filming incident being noted here: on the CSX near Savanah; was not. I’d bet / guess that the fatality was the fault of a strict Trespassing violation on the part of the filmmaker…in violation of the reminder to ‘expect a train at any time from any direction’… Had the CSX been involved, no one would have persihed for an unanticipated train… IMHO.
Total conjecture on my part, but I would opine that they were assured by someone not of an official (RR) capacity that there are “hardly any trains on the line,” or something to that effect.
I’m with Sam - barring further evidence, they were trespassing. Since this has some fairly high visibility, I’d love to see that issue pushed. The message would probably reach a much greater audience than any publicity a RR or OLI could hope for.
How many prom photos, etc, do we see that were taken on the tracks - and with little doubt with absolutely no knowledge of the railroad involved?
Not enough information in the news piece to get the whole story. The journalist probably doesn’t know what the right questions are to ask.
Unfortunately, this is true for most non-railroaders around railroads. It’s been stated the film crew had “permission” but not from the railroad. Did the film makers know who to ask? It’s a silly question for most of us but not necessarily for those who don’t know our business. Remember, the vast majority of citizens do not realize railroads are private property. Furthermore, everyone has grown up with railroads in their periphery and thus think they know what railroads are all about. As we have seen this thinking can be deadly.
The picture that is shown with the article has a sign about contacting Rayonier for access to the property. While Rayonier may control the trees - they don’t control the railroad - especially a 79 MPH main line railroad.
This article says that the Wayne County Sheriff’s office was able to confirm that the film crew had permission from CSX to shoot “in that general vicinity.”
They could have been given permission to shoot on railroad property but not within the fouling envelope (15 feet from centerline), and ventured onto the bridge “expecting two trains”, “when a third train arrived unexpectedly” (quotes from OP’s article). So yes, trespassing/unauthorized use is still an option.
If they were allowed on the tracks, they’d have to have a railroad flagman with them and have everyone on set be RWP-qualified (Roadway Worker Protection) and go through a job briefing with said flagman before the shoot. That flagman would provide them one of three types of protection: audible warning, foul time, and track out of service.
This incident could not have happened under foul time or track out of service unless human error was involved, giving the train permission to proceed. Given that the crew was “expecting two trains” and were caught off guard by a third, I doubt this.
Audible warning should not have been used if there was a bed placed on the tracks. It says the crew was warned by a “whistle” (either the locomotive horn or an compressed-air horn used by the flagman) providing them less than a minute of warning. That is permissible under FRA rules (the minimum warning time is 15 seconds), but having a bed on the tracks shouldn’t have made that an acceptable option.
I’m also unsure where the place of safety would be on a bridge. The article notes that the film crew attempted to reach the plank walkway over the bridge…that’s an iffy safe haven at best. At fifteen seconds, you’re not going to m
It’s not the trees that Rayonier controls. Doctortown is the location of a very large pulpwood processing plant, visible from the train on the west side of the tracks. So the plant property, adjacent to the CSX main, is controlled by Rayonier. The sign in the picture indicates what needs to be done to get access to Rayonier property; but it has no relevance to the CSX tracks, including the bridge. The bridge is near that sign, but I’m not too sure how far it is because I usually see it from a side window in the diner when we are at track speed. Everything here is speculation. Maybe they asked Rayonier for permission and permission was granted, and the film crew thought Rayonier’s permission extended to the bridge, which it didn’t. Of course, if Rayonier did give them some sort of permission, one would think Rayonier would send a representative to be present. That representative could have corrected any misunderstandings about the extent of Rayonier’s property and the extent of their permission. But as I said before, everything here is speculation, so we can’t draw any conclusions yet. Unless I missed it, I don’t think the article even said what time it happened.
It will be interesting to sort this one out. Any comment out there has yet to be vetted.
49CFR214(c) aside, every Class One have strict lease & contract rules for film/TV/ advertising that have been in place for years. These folks have an ugly reputation around railroads (especially in planning out in advance of a shoot and pony-ing up the flagman and permit fees)…As Roadmaster for a Cls 1 in LA, I had to deal with it constantly - rarely were these people on the property with the company’s permission. Many times found myself shooing these folks off over the objections of a city film commission official. Furthering Ty’s comments, if they were on the railroad with CSX’s knowledge and consent, anybody without SX safety training had no business being out there. Anybody that deals with CSX knows how tough it is to get permission to access or encroach with those folks.
Something really smells at the moment.
Right about here: N 31.65453 W 81.82904
I don’t understand how it is that they knew 2 trains were coming and didn’t know about the third. It seems like they must have asked somebody about the traffic. Was that for safety reasons, so they could clear the tracks, or was it so they could take pix of the trains? Did they just assume those 2 trains would be the last for the day? Who, besides the film crew, was on site? Who was the “engineer” who blew a whistle or horn or whatever? What good was that supposed to do if the train was already in sight on a fast railroad? Didn’t anybody have a radio? Way too many unknowns.
The article posted by BaltACD pretty much lays it out! [:-^]
FTA:“…JESUP, Ga. (AP) — A movie crew was working on train tracks without permission from the railroad when a freight train crashed into the production team and its equipment, killing one and injuring seven others, a sheriff’s investigator said Friday…”
“…The deadly collision took place at a railroad trestle that crosses the Altamaha River in the rural county about 60 miles southwest of Savannah. The tracks, owned by CSX Railroad, cross private land owned by forest-products company Rayonier, which has a nearby paper mill. Joe Gardner, the lead detective on the case, said the crew had Rayonier’s permission to film on its property next to the train tracks…”
Certainly feel sorry for The CSX crew and those people injured, and the young lady killed, as a result of someone’s {make that a [ MORON’S ]bad decision.[sigh]
The Wayne County Sheriff’s Office is investigating this as a homicide.
“We treat any suspicious type of thing or serious accident as a homicide until we prove otherwise,” said Det. Joe Gardner. “And that reasoning is always, I guess, to ensure that we err on the side of caution.”
Meddin Studios’ Creative Director said today’s shoot on the trestle was coordinated with CSX Railroad and Raynioner. The Sheriff’s Office confirmed that the crew had both companies’ permission to film.
CSX has also stated they were aware of a film crew in the area, but they had no authority to be on the property or fouling the track.
-Charge the film production crew with murder and wreckless endangerment? CSX authorities are fully cooperating with local jurisdictions (the accident scene is on CSX jurisdiction first with the county second) The speculation and mis-information out there is rampant from people with no clue how things work.
Again, this will take a while to sort out. The more I see and hear , there are people in the film crew who ought to be worried about jail time and the production company is about to be sued out of existence (CSX needs to send a strong message that this is far beyond an unfortunate accident.)
I kinda hope that this gets widespread media coverage - especially the trespassing aspect. You can’t buy this type of advertising, and a lot of people wouldn’t pay attention anyhow.
Another article …
http://www.enterkom.com/enterprise/?p=14278
“Miller had fallen onto the tracks before the train arrived but the still photographer pulled him off, according to the witness, saving his life. The bed was then hit by the train and exploded. That debris hit and injured several people, including one seriously, who was airlifted to Savannah’s Memorial Health University Medical Center.”
Exploding Bed?
I probably should have read that tag before I pulled it off!!
It is hard to believe that CSX would have granted permission for the film crew to be on their property on just an informal verbal basis. And yet if the permission did not include the right to be on CSX property, why was their permission needed?
It is certainly not clear that this was a case of trespassing.
I agree that criminal charges are appropriate.
Maybe the second camera assistant was aware that they weren’t technically supposed to be there. Maybe she wasn’t. Somebody made the decision to shoot on the bridge, and everyone else followed along. Professional courtesy is very strong in the film/photography industry – people are trusted to do their jobs – and the hierarchy of second assistant to whoever was in charge makes very difficult to say “hey, maybe we shouldn’t be doing this.” I’m from the still photography world, but even as a first assistant it takes a lot to speak up against a higher-up.
In any case, it sure isn’t the second assistant’s job to know the dangers of that location, nor that of many of the other film crew members. It may be a complicated case to decide who decided to shoot there, who was responsible for getting permission, and who should have put their foot down.
Someone was unaware of trespassing laws or thought he or she could get away with shooting without permission, and a second camera assistant is dead because of it. Others are physically or mentally injured. Disgusting.
It is a technical difference, but murder requires that you attack someone and they die (murder 1, which is punishable by death in some states, requires that you wanted them dead, i.e. “premeditation”) . It could be considered “reckless homicide” in that the film crew company should have known that they were risking death by their actions (I mean, what were they thinking?) Having lived in the South for a time (Florida) however my guess is nothing will ever come of this.