Thursday, February 08, 2024
Crew member dies on set of Marvel’s ‘Wonder Man’ TV series
National | Globalnews.ca: A crew member working on Marvel‘s latest TV series, Wonder Man, died on set after falling from an elevated catwalk in Los Angeles on Tuesday morning.
The crew member, identified by the L.A. County coroner as 41-year-old Juan Carlos Osorio, was working as a rigger at Radford Studios in Studio City.
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4 comments:
This headline immediately caught my attention as it reminded me of the Rust incident that occurred around this time last year which resulted in the death of a crew member on set as well. I was heartbroken to hear that Osorio’s death was so preventable. I feel like it is common sense to be clipped into some sort of safety device when up on heights working. It shocked me that this is not industry standard as I believe it should be. When I first read this headline I assumed some freak accident occurred resulting in a death but hearing that Osorio’s death was easily preventable is heartbreaking. I am so glad both IATSE and OSHA are looking into this incident and I hope Disney is held responsible for the loss of life in out industry that occurred due to their negligence. This is an example of why all of the safety practices and PPE we use in SOD is important to consider in the “real world”.
I sometimes forget how dangerous working in the industry can be. It is incredibly saddening to hear that a study within Marvel that has a lot of budget and money to work with can still have a massive safety breach and accident. I am glad that the go fund me that was set up has raised enough to at least put a dent into the legal battles that i am sure are about to occur. I would be really interested to see what the investigation comes up with because I cannot think of a reason such a serious accident woud have had with a qualified and trained rigger unless there was a serious malfunction with the equipment. And how such a serious malfunction happens on a set like that I do not know. I hope the family is able to find some peace in their grief and the investigation is able to give them the answers they need
We work in a sometimes dangerous industry, and it is easy to get into the mindset of "got to do what has to be done" while working. This however does not mean that any tasks should be life-threatening or lead to loss of life like in this situation. While I'm sure no one in the industry loves the idea of having training days to go over things like aerial rigging and safety practices, it is always worth having some boring hours in those talks versus losing a life over something that could have been completely avoided. While a situation where someone dies is horrible, I do hope it leads to a change in how workers are treated and how they are trained to ensure this does not happen again. There are so many products out there for fall-arrest and connection points for when you are working in the air, and so many of those companies will send reps out to show how the products are used to make sure people do not end up dying when working at height. This is one of the most dangerous parts of our industry and should be treated with much more care.
There are undeniable risks working in the theatre industry, especially in rigging. This being said, every time a tragedy in our industry happens, like on this Marvel set, we must take a step back as an industry and reflect on the safety culture in entertainment. I’ve witnessed a culture in our industry in which we have to rush through potentially dangerous situations as “part of the job”. Yes, ladders, power tools, and other possibly hazardous things are “part of the job”, but utilizing them safely and efficiently must be an objective of the work we do. Accidents will inevitably happen, but there are ways to lessen the frequency of them- safety training, proper inspection, etc. It’s disappointing that Marvel is not helping with this crisis to the point that a GoFundMe is warranted. No matter if the employee was a direct worker of Marvel, if it was on their set, they should be held responsible in a financial sense. Even if not legally necessary, its the right thing to do.
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