'Resident Evil' Stunt Performer Wins Legal Case Following Career-Ending Accident

The saga of U.K.-based stunt performer Olivia Jackson and her accident on Resident Evil has finally reached a conclusion of sorts.

Jackson suffered life-changing injuries following an accident while shooting 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, and has now won a legal case in South Africa against a company involved in the film.

While standing in for Milla Jovovich during the 2015 shoot in Cape Town and riding a motorcycle at high speed, Jackson collided with a crane-mounted camera vehicle traveling in the opposite direction. She would spend 17 days in a coma, with her left arm having to be amputated above the elbow. She was also left with a twisted spine, paralysis of the top left quarter of her body including her neck, a dislocated shoulder, a severed thumb, punctured lungs and broken ribs, and still suffers lasting nerve damage and facial scarring.

At court in South Africa has now found in favor of Jackson, ruling that the stunt was negligently planned and executed by the local company, Bickers Actions SA, that had been operating the camera and filming vehicle.

According to the judge, as a stunt performer, Jackson had not voluntarily assumed the risk of the accident, and she was unaware that director Paul W.S. Anderson had given the uninsured driver, Melville, instructions to decrease the safety margin from the rehearsal run to the incident run in order to get a more exciting shot.

"I miss my old face. I miss my old body. I miss my old life. At least I now finally have a court judgment that proves this stunt was badly planned and that it was not my fault,” said Jackson of the ruling.

"Action movies that require people to carry out dangerous stunts should always be very carefully planned and performed. They should also be backed by insurance that can meet the very significant life-long losses that could be incurred by any member of the cast and crew who is seriously injured," said Julian Chamberlayne, partner at Stewarts and global counsel for Jackson.

"This judgment is an important recognition that stunt performers are not themselves inherently responsible, nor willing but disposable volunteers when something goes wrong. Like all workers they are owed a duty of care by those responsible for the safest possible performance of the stunt."

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