New 'Midnight Rider' Video Captures Terror on Georgia Train Trestle

Crewmember Sarah Jones was killed, seven others injured, while filming a scene.

ByABC News
March 20, 2015, 10:26 PM

— -- New video obtained by ABC News today captures the terror on a Georgia train trestle during the shooting of the film “Midnight Rider.”

The video, which doesn't include any audio, was shot by one of the cameramen as the “Midnight Rider” cast and crew filmed a dream sequence on an active train trestle over the Altamaha River in Doctortown, Georgia, on Feb. 20, 2014.

At the beginning of the video, Oscar-winning actor William Hurt, who was playing rock legend Gregg Allman, is seen lying on a hospital bed placed across the train tracks, then the headlight of an oncoming train appears in the distance.

Seeing the train, Hurt jumps off the hospital bed and crewmembers rush to try to remove it and other equipment from the train tracks. The camera swings wildly as crewmembers, including “Midnight Rider” director Randall Miller, are seen rushing to get off the bridge as the train approaches.

The cameraman, who is still recording, seems to realize he won’t make it off the tracks in time and hugs the girder. The camera faces out off the bridge, over the Altamaha River, as part of the hospital bed’s railing is thrown off by the force of the train. The shadow of the moving train passes over the landscape below.

After a few moments, the cameraman, still recording, swings the camera back to capture images of the train. Other crewmembers can be seen moving down the train trestle, with little room to squeeze by, as the stopped CSX freight train looms over them.

While the video does capture a few crewmembers with injuries, including hairstylist Joyce Gilliard, whose arm was broken in the accident, it does not show 27-year-old camera assistant Sarah Jones, who was killed on impact, the sole fatality of the incident, which injured seven people.