The (still) dangerous life of film stuntmen

It's funny but you never hear much about these guys and the dangerous work they do. A stuntman on "The Walking Dead" was just killed, so that raised the subject in an LA Times story. Some gruesome stuff stuff happens like a stuntwoman having her face "degloved" (I don't even want to think about it) by hitting a camera crane arm while on a motorcycle filming a "Resident Evil" movie.

'The Walking Dead' stuntman Jon Bernecker dead after on-set accident

You wouldn't think filmmaking would be such an injury prone occupation, but I guess there is a lot of construction that goes on, there have been 44 deaths in the last two decades and 251 "catastrophic" injuries on sets in that same time.

http://spreadsheets.latimes.com/film-set-accidents/

Examples:
Animal wrangler working on a scene involving a bull was gored
A Helicopter crash kills pilot and two crew members
Stuntwoman burned in a fire stunt on show "Face-Off".
Wife of reality TV star killed by a smoke bomb.

Wow, I didn't realize that with all the modern safety precautions and all the CGI effects we have, that this level of injury was still going on.

 

People choose different careers. Some are more dangerous than others.

"Saftey" is a relative term to what you put yourself in front of.

 

Very sad news about Jon Bernecker. RIP.

 

It's still a very dangerous job. Some stuff you can do to a point with CG, but it almost always starts with a real human being, even if they're falling against green screen or onto a big cushioned mat.