A movie crew was working on train tracks, allegedly without permission from the railway when a freight train crashed into the production team and its equipment, killing one and injuring seven others, a sheriff's investigator has said.
The Savannah-based crew was shooting footage for Midnight Rider, a film based on the life of singer Gregg Allman, when the crash happened on Thursday afternoon.
The train struck and killed a woman identified by the sheriff's department as 27-year-old Sarah Elizabeth Jones of Atlanta. Injuries of one of the others hurt were serious enough for the person to be flown by helicopter to a Savannah hospital.
Wayne County sheriff's detectives are still working to piece together how and why it happened.
The deadly collision took place at a railway trestle that crosses the Altamaha River in the rural county nearly 100 kilometres southwest of Savannah.
Production of Midnight Rider, starring actor William Hurt as the Allman Brothers singer in his later years and All-American rejects vocalist Tyson Ritter as a young Allman, began this month in coastal Georgia.
The film is based on Allman's 2012 memoir, My Cross To Bear, with production based at Meddin Studios in Savannah.
The tracks, owned by CSX Railway, cross private land owned by forest-products company Rayonier, which has a nearby paper mill.
Joe Gardner, the lead detective on the case, said the crew had Rayonier's permission to film on its property next to the train tracks.
"CSX has told me they were aware they were out there but they did not have permission to be on the train tracks," Gardner told reporters.
Trespassing onto railway tracks is illegal under Georgia law.
Investigators say the train smashed some of the crew's equipment, and it's possible some of the injuries were caused by flying debris.
