Resident Evil stunt performer wins legal battle after career-ending accident

Olivia Jackson had her arm amputated after the motorbike she was riding collided with a camera vehicle

Resident Evil stunt performer Olivia Jackson has won a legal battle after an accident on set of the film left her partially paralysed and needing her arm amputated.

Olivia Jackson was standing in for Milla Jovovich while shooting for Resident Evil: The Final Chapter in Cape Town in 2015 when a motorcycle she was riding at high speed was involved in a collision with a crane-mounted camera vehicle.

Jackson, who is based in the UK, was left with a twisted spine, dislocated shoulder, severed thumb, punctured lungs and broken ribs and was in a coma for 17 days.

Her left arm had to be amputated above the elbow and the top left quarter of her body including her neck was paralysed, with Jackson still suffering lasting nerve damage and facial scarring.

Now, over a year since first filing a lawsuit in September 2019, a court in South Africa ruled in favour of Jackson, agreeing that the local company Bickers Actions SA had been negligent in their planning and execution of the stunt.

Additionally, the judge dismissed the defendants’ allegations that it was poor driving on Jackson’s part that had caused the accident.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Jackson said of the ruling: “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.”

Jackson’s counsel Julian Chamberlayne of Stewarts added: “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.”