A 26-year-old movie extra and aspiring actress, who was critically injured while filming Transformers 3, has won a $18.5 million settlement from Paramount.
Gabriella Cedillo, then 24, suffered a serious brain injury while appearing in the background of an action sequence in the city of Hammond Indiana, on September 1, 2010 for Michael Bay’s Transformers: Dark of the Moon.
The young woman was driving her own vehicle in the background of a scene when a cable snapped and plunged through her windshield — striking her in the head. Subsequently to the incident, she was rushed to the hospital where it was noted that she had serious brain trauma.
In the lawsuit, Cedillo’s lawyer, Todd Smith, claimed that neither Paramount Pictures nor DreamWorks Studios, the film’s production partners, had a permit for fireworks or explosive devices on the day which helped lead to the incident.
The lawyer said the accident happen because of a “completely inadequate superficial weld had been applied in a failed effort to secure the bracket to the [stunt] car. I think they were well aware of what was going on out there. They were actually announcing on the radio, that, watch out for the debris. The people were driving around, apparently, trying to dodge debris as they drove along.”
He added that, “a large part of her brain was lost. She has difficulty with memory. She can’t remember when she went to the bathroom five minutes earlier.”
To view the chilling pictures from the event along with Cedillo in the hospital flip the page:
