Miller was sentenced in March to two years in Wayne County Jail after pleading guilty to charges of involuntary manslaughter and criminal trespass stemming from the Feb. 20, 2014, train accident on the set of “Midnight Rider.” Camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed and eight others were injured.
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Well when you kill someone, even if it is by accident, you have to take responsibility for your actions. It’s the kind of thing that we’re taught from the moment we are able to function somewhat as a person, whatever we due we should have to own up to. And I understand that that’s often hard, particularly when the blame is placed on you, that often times we just want to move past the dumb thing that we did. But when someone dies due to your own negligence and the fact that you consciously disobeyed a law, there is no opportunity to move past the mistake. It was determined that he should serve 2 years in prison with 8 years of probation as consequence for his actions, and as far as I’m concerned, him trying to be released from prison before that sentence has been served (2 years in prison seems pretty small compared to the value of a human life) is him trying to dodge his responsibility for her death. It just isn’t right.
Over the last year, I've seen a number of articles featured on this blog about this particularly troubling case. I find I am actually quite glad that there was no modification or lessening of the sentence issued to Randall Miller, as it goes to show that not even Hollywood is exempt from the consequences stemming from a workplace death. In a world of special treatment, this serves as a powerful reminder and example that the health, safety, and lives of those creating the art must come before the art itself.
I do look forward to seeing how this imprisonment and the investigation following the death of Sarah Jones impact the course of safety procedures on movie sets as a whole. One of the hardest obstacles with regards to reforming safety measures is that actions to ensure the health and protection of production members can not be something that is changed over time. Ensuring that an accident like this does not occur again carries an inherent immediacy that must be addressed.
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