Deadline: The company that produced the ill-fated Rust movie has been slapped with a fine of $136,793 by the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau for its “willful and serious” violation of workplace safety procedures. The fine, which is the maximum allowable, follows the Bureau’s six-month investigation into the circumstances leading up to the accidental shooting that killed cinematographer Halyna Hutchins and wounded director Joel Souza on October 21.
3 comments:
Honestly this is bullshit. Someone should be imprisoned as a result of this. At the very least, the individuals involved should not be allows to continue to work in this industry. The amount of times somebody could have stopped and addressed the lackadaisical attitude towards firearms safety is horrendous.
The reality is that Alec Baldwin is the reason that the firearm was discharged, he failed to follow even basic firearm safety by pointing a hot gun at somebody.
That said, I don't like that the article fails to address precisely how the live rounds made it to set. It made mention of the fact that the someone in charge of purchasing believed that they were ordering dummy rounds. But still, whose job was it to receive the ammunition? Whose job was it to check to see if the rounds were live or blanks? And who loaded them into the firearm? Multiple people failed to adhere to their due diligence throughout this process and someone died. Entirely unacceptable.
The fact that in film a human life costs $136,793 is disgusting. There will be no justice for Halyna. Insurance will cover that and any lost profits from Rust's production.
How the hell is $136793 the maximum fine for this? I'm sorry, but is that all that this damage is worth to people? That amount of money compared to the actual budgeted cost of the film is nothing. That amount of money compared to the cost of a human life is flat out insulting. I am flabbergasted that someone hasn't been tried or sent to jail for this.
As I read through the investigation that happened into this, I'm pretty sickened by how safety was barely a concern for the production. Putting only 8 days of paid armorer time into the armorer's contract, double-booking her as a props assistant, then cutting off her armorer time when there were still shots with weapons is just complete negligence. The lack of safety meetings on days where accidents happened is also a glaring issue. I just cannot believe this series of errors that lead us to this point.
On Alec Baldwin, I used to think differently, but now that more info has come out and I have thought more on it, I can't separate him from these circumstances. At the end of the day, he failed to follow basic protocol when working with guns, and at the end of the day, he pointed the gun and pulled the trigger. There is no excuse.
I’m happy that the company that produced the ill-fated Rust movie has been slapped with a fine of $136,793 by the New Mexico Occupational Health and Safety Bureau for its “willful and serious” violation of workplace safety procedures. This is a direct punishment for the unsafe working environment that was created on this set and shows to all other production sets working around the country that a disregard for safety will not be tolerated. It’s very interesting to see that this fine was the maximum allowable because some film productions have budgets in the multimillions and I bet that fine would be much less damaging for a large production. I do agree that it is absolutely ridiculous that no one is in jail as a result of their actions in-getting live rounds to set. What I didn’t realize until now is that this fine is the result of the FBIs investigation into the incident. This is so unacceptable and I want justice to be served for Halyna Hutchins.
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