Death on Set Spotlights Safety Issue

by Lisa Van Proyen
LA Daily News Staff Writer

The death of a Chatsworth man and injuries to six other crew members setting up a shoot for TV's "The X-Files" last week have prompted movie industry officials to revisit just how safe TV and film sets are.

The accident -- when a metal rod held by a crew member setting up scaffolding hit a high-voltage power line in Century City -- represents a worsening trend of serious accidents on movie and TV sets and location shoots.

In the pursuit of more sophisticated and realistic movie and TV shots, deaths have increased statewide, and the complaints among employees in the Los Angeles market have increased in recent years, although industry officials defend their safety record as better than most employers'.

"As the stunts and the special effects demand more, we have more injuries, lacerations, cut-off fingers, sprains and strains," said Rana Platz-Petersen, the business representative for Local 767, the union that represents Motion Picture Studio First Aid Employees.

There were eight deaths in 1997, compared with seven in 1996 and three each in 1995 and 1994, according statistics of the California Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The number of injuries doubled from 1994 to 1998, from 4,000 to 8,100 statewide.

However, during that same time period, the number of motion picture employees has also increased from 138,000 to 185,400.

When you account for the higher number of employees, the motion picture industry is "below the average of all private industries combined," said Victoria Heza, a deputy chief of enforcement for Cal-OSHA, the state agency that investigates unsafe work conditions and industrial accidents.

For each 100 full-time employees in motion pictures, there were 1.5 people with injuries and illnesses on the set in 1998 and a nearly equal 1.2 people in 1994, Heza said.

Private industries, which include construction, manufacturing and agriculture jobs, had an average of 3.2 injuries per 100 employees, vs. the motion picture industry with 1.4 injuries, Heza said.

Injury reports to Cal-OSHA are only required in cases of deaths, amputations of any body parts or an injury that requires hospitalization for more than 24 hours and for more than just an observation.

Critics in the industry, including the Screen Actors Guild, point out that not all studios and productions report all injuries.

"Sometimes I have a performer call and complain about an injury and there's no report," said Sandi DeLoatch, an administrative assistant to SAG's stunt and safety department.

SAG's figures show that 64 people were injured in 1999, vs. 100 the year before. But those figures only include actors, stunt performers and children, not the technical and backup crews also listed on movie credits.

Most of those accidents occurred on location, rather than in a studio, as was the case with Jim Engh, 38, of Chatsworth, who was electrocuted while setting up scaffolding at a Century City apartment complex on Monday. He was carrying a 20-inch-long steel pipe that came in contact with a high power line.

The Screen Actors Guild said most accidents happen during filming, as opposed to during rehearsal or any other times.

And the majority of the injuries result from falls, fight sequences and trips and slips, according to guild statistics.

The other problem, officials said, is some employees resist reporting injuries out of fear they will not be called back to work.

"They are all scared to death to talk to a regulatory agency," said Richard Eslava, a safety engineer who investigates injuries in the entertainment industry.

"The stuntmen are the bane of my existence. The audiences want more and more excitement and realism in movies. The problem is, if the director says I want the stunt done and he says it's too dangerous, the director will call somebody the next day to get somebody who will do it."

Engh never complained about being injured on the job, his brother David said.

"He once smashed his thumb with a hammer," his brother said. But he never made an issue about any minor injuries he may have suffered.

"He was very confident that he knew what he was doing. And probably 95 percent of the people he worked with, he was confident in what they were doing," the brother said.

Industry officials said an increasing number of producers opt to go without medical staffing, especially before the camera is rolling and actors are on the set.

This occurs despite a Cal-OSHA regulation that orders employers to have a first aid provider at every job site to respond within four minutes before paramedics arrive, said Hassan Adan, a district manager for Cal-OSHA in Los Angeles.

"The producers don't want first aid. There have been two proposals to eliminate us altogether," said Platz-Petersen of Local 767, which provides union-operated first aid personnel for producers.

A Universal Studios source said producers there and at other studios decide whether to hire trained medics on their sets on a "case-by-case" basis.

"It's based on the type of job, the number of people on the set and the number and type of tools," the source said. "It's a system followed by most of the major studios."

Thom Davis, the business representative in Burbank for the Motion Picture Studio Grips and Crafts Service workers that represents the riggers injured on the "X-Files" crew last week, questions the policy.

"It is a problem. I shouldn't ever have to talk to an employee about having a first aid person," Davis said. "It's a monetary issue. According to these people, they don't have enough money to set up a hot dog stand."

Platz-Petersen said the producers opt to do away with medics to avoid injury reports that reflect unfavorable statistics.

"My own personal opinion is they want to claim a safe industry, which they're not," she said.

"I tell them, excuse me, you're blowing up cars. What do you mean you don't need medical care?"

A trained medic was on scene to handle the ill-fated "X-Files" setup July 31, but only because the crew realized that they were without a medic three hours earlier, Platz-Petersen said.

"A minor incident happened three hours earlier when something dropped on somebody's arm," she said. "If they chose to not have somebody, you probably would have had more than one death. ... They roll the dice on people's lives."

Tim Lampros, a medic, was praised by firefighters and workers for saving other men on the scaffolding. Christian Silver, 35, of Sherman Oaks is the only one who remains hospitalized, in good condition, UCLA hospital officials said.

Though industry officials would not comment on the electrocution because the case is under investigation, Davis, who represents the grips, said more education is needed to prevent TV and film injuries.

Sony Pictures Entertainment of Culver City insists on having a preproduction safety meeting with department heads before any setting up for a film, said Rosanne Feild, executive director of Sony's corporate safety and environmental affairs. And a medic is mandatory at a film site, even during setup.

"We always learn. ... We've chosen to follow the law," Feild said.

She said that it's this training and having medics on site that have given Sony a favorable track record of one fatality in seven years and about two to three injuries in the past five years.

Davis, who represents the grips, said even more safety training is needed.

"It's never enough. You can always do more. ... I think what happened last Monday sort of points to that."