Mark Milsome Foundation shares lessons learned following death of British camera operator

On 22 October 2020, the inquest of the coroner at West London Court stated that Mark Milsome was killed because “the risk of being harmed or fatally injured was not effectively recognised, assessed, communicated or managed.”

The safety officer attached to the production was Jamie Fewster from First Option. He wrote a risk assessment following location meetings with the original stunt co-ordinator, Julian Spencer, and together they discussed the intentions, execution and scope of the stunt. This risk assessment remained in operation, without amendment, until the day of the fatal stunt on 18 November 2017.

Following the closing submissions, the coroner Chinyere Inyama retired for a short while before delivering his judgement that Mark Milsome was fatally injured while filming a night-time stunt sequence in Achimota Forest outside Accra, Ghana. Shortly before the execution of the stunt, the risk of Mr Milsome being harmed or fatally injured was not effectively recognised, assessed, communicated or managed.

You can read more about the original inquest here.

The Mark Milsome Foundation has recently released a statement, three years after Milsome’s tragic death and following the conclusion of the Coroner’s Inquest. You can view the open letter from Kirk Jones, Chairman, Mark Milsome Foundation, below: