WorkSafeBC report outlines stuntwoman’s death
Motorcyclist’s demise on movie set result of exceeding set limits: watchdog
A woman who was killed on a stunt during filming of the movie Deadpool 2 went outside the planned boundaries of the stunt, according to an initial report by WorkSafeBC released on Friday.
The report of the death of motorcycle driver Joi “S.J.” Harris, 40, of Brooklyn, N.Y., provides the first official details of the crash and confirms some observations of witnesses.
WorkSafeBC, the B.C.’s main workplace regulatory agency, said the temporary work site in downtown Vancouver had been cordoned off from the public and traffic by the Vancouver Police Department.
The stunt driver — whose name has been removed from the report, a routine practice of WorkSafeBC — had been rehearsing a stunt involving driving a motorcycle — a Ducati Hyperstrada 939 — out the open doors of a building, across a concrete pad and down a ramp that had been built over three stairs and coming to a stop on the stair landing.
During the first shooting of the scene, the stunt driver continued driving beyond the planned stopping spot, and drove down a second ramp built over the bottom stairs and across the roadway.
“The motorcycle struck the concrete sidewalk curb, the worker was thrown off the motorcycle and propelled through a plate-glass window of a building,” says the report.
The stunt took place on Monday, this week, at Jack Poole Plaza near the Vancouver waterfront, and the motorcycle crashed into a plateglass window at the Shaw Tower around 8 a.m.
The report does not say whether Harris was wearing a helmet. Deadline Hollywood, an online magazine reporting on the entertainment industry, said no helmet was worn because the character in the movie was not wearing one.
The stunt was reportedly Harris’s first job in the movie industry, but the WorkSafeBC report makes no mention of her experience.
A more detailed report of WorkSafeBC’s full investigation will likely take months to complete.
The initial WorkSafeBC report also indicates that the company the stunt woman worked for — TCF Vancouver Productions Ltd. — must deliver a preliminary investigation report and followup with a full investigation.
TCF Vancouver Production has a number of directors listed in its filings with the province’s corporate registry, including from Los Angeles and New York.
Production on the superhero sequel was shut down for two days, resuming on Wednesday of this week.
Harris was performing a stunt for Domino, a new character in the Marvel movie. The part is played by actor Zazie Beetz.
According to her website, Harris got hooked on motorcycles after she rode on the back of a bike driven by a friend. She got her race licence in 2013 and began racing in 2014, and described herself as the first African-American woman to compete in an American Motorcyclist Association-sanctioned event.
The motorcycle struck (a curb), the worker was thrown off the motorcycle and propelled through a plateglass window.