$11M Verdict In 'Midnight Rider' Death Of Movie Set Worker

SAVANNAH, GA — More than three years after a CSX Transportation train hit and killed crew member Sarah Jones on the movie set of "Midnight Rider," a since-shelved biography of the late singer Gregg Allman, a Savannah jury has decided the company must pay $11 million to the set worker's family. CSX officials reportedly allowed filming near the railroad bridge where Jones and half a dozen others were struck, but the defendant's attorney said the company didn't give permission for filming on a bridge, where the accident happened.

But the parents of Jones argued the railroad company was liable for their daughter's death because CSX workers didn't warn crews that the film crew could be on the train trestle the day of the accident. Attorney for the Jones family convinced jurors that multiple emails from Film Allman, LLC production managers and CSX emails weren't shared, or weren't followed to exercise caution.

Jeffery Harris, the Jones' attorney, said in court, "Follow your own rules, that's the whole point, and they didn't do it. They didn't do what they should've done," WTGS reports.

Lawyers for CSX argued that Film Allman, LLC production managers were at fault for the fatal mishap by having crew members on the trestle after the railroad company denied permission to film.

The movie's director was sentenced to spend two years in jail for the death of the camera assistant.

According to WSB-TV, in March 2015 Randall Miller pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter and trespassing for the Feb. 20, 2014 death of Jones. Jones was hit and killed by a train on a bridge over the Altamaha River in Jessup on the first day of filming for ”Midnight Rider.”

The “Midnight Rider” crew had received permission from CSX to shoot scenes near the railroad bridge, but had not been given permission to work on the structure itself. The crew had pulled a metal frame bed across the tracks for the scene, WSB-TV said. Six others were injured when the train demolished the bed and sent metal chunks flying in all directions.

Following Miller’s plea deal, he was sentenced to two years in the county jail, eight months on probation, and was ordered to pay a $20,000 fine, WSB-TV says. Allman sued before his death earlier this year to prevent production of the film from continuing.

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