Deadpool Stuntwomen :Deadpool 2 loses one of their talented stuntwomen, Joi Harris, to a motorcycle crash on the film set in Vancouver, August of 2017.

Deadpool Stuntwomen Harris Former

Harris, former motorcyclist, the first African-American woman who was licensed to actively compete in American Motorcyclist Association races was 32 years when she died.

The production company TCF Vancouver Productions has been slapped with a lawsuit that ends up in them paying a penalty of $289,562 for failing to meet the standards for a safe workplace for stuntmen and stuntwomen.

The penalty is imposed on the production house by WorkSafeBC, the U.S. equivalent of OSHA. 

Harris was killed in a tragic accident when she was performing the movie-stunt, she was ejected from the motorcycle and crashed through the plate-glass window of a nearby building. Production came to a standstill following the horrifying death of the stuntwomen.

“The primary purpose of an administrative penalty is to motivate the employer receiving the penalty — and other employers — to comply with occupational health and safety requirements and to keep their workplaces safe,”

the agency said today in a statement to local newspapers. The death left actor Ryan Reynolds “devastated” among other members of the production and her kin.

violations of the Workers Compensation Act

On further investigation, WorkSafeBC identified these violations of the Workers Compensation Act and The occupation Health and Safety Regulation including:

• Failure to ensure the health and safety of all workers by failing to identify the hazards and assess and control the risks of the work activity and failing to provide adequate supervision.
• Failure to ensure that the stunt performer complied with the Regulation by wearing a safety headgear while operating the motorcycle.
• Failure to ensure the health and safety of the stunt performer by failing to provide adequate supervision with respect to this work activity.
• Failure to provide the stunt performer with a new worker orientation.
• Instructing the stunt performer not to wear safety headgear while operating the motorcycle.

Although this incident brings to light the shortcomings on behalf of the production houses, one can’t overlook or deny the fact that the job description of a stunt actor involves risk and near-death experiences as part of the job description.

The other few prominent deaths of stuntmen that have taken place while filming on set were- John Bernecker died in July 2017 after a 25-foot fall from a balcony while shooting the eighth season of “The Walking Dead” and Harry L. O’Connor who lost his life on a paraglider that hit a bridge pillar while shooting a stunt for Vin Diesel’s “XXX” in 2012.

The tragic deaths of talented and young stuntmen should be a cautionary tale for production houses to ensure that safety procedures are followed thoroughly in the future to avoid such incidents and groveling lawsuits.