Stuntman Dies After 57-Foot Fall at Power Plant

A stuntman died early Saturday from head injuries after plunging 57 feet from a power plant platform in Sun Valley during the filming of a police drama.

The dead man was identified as Paul Dallas, 34, of Canyon Country.

Police said Dallas struck his head after landing on the edge of the air bag that was supposed to break his three-story fall from a platform at the Department of Water and Power plant Friday night.

“He was ejected backward,” said Los Angeles Police Sgt. Pete Weinhold of the Foothill Division. “The back of his head hit a metal railing.”

Dallas was taken to Providence Holy Cross Medical Center in Mission Hills, where he died of massive head injuries, said hospital spokeswoman Shireen Gandhi-Kozel.

“He was in full cardiac arrest when he arrived,” Gandhi-Kozel said. “The hospital did revive him and try to administer treatment, but his injuries were too extensive.”

Dallas was performing a stunt for the television drama series “L.A. Heat.” The program was filming Friday night at the DWP’s Valley generating station at 11801 Sheldon St.

DWP spokesman Walter Zeisl said the utility’s facilities are frequently used as movie sets, as it is the city’s policy to cooperate with filmmakers.

Zeisl identified the production company for the show as P.M. Entertainment, a Sun Valley firm. No one from the company was available for comment Saturday.

In May, the entertainment industry trade paper Variety described “L.A. Heat” as a Wolf Larson series that focuses on two disparate Los Angeles cops and their approaches to fighting crime.

Police said the stuntman’s death is listed as an accident pending further investigation.

Questions about film set safety were most recently raised by the December 1995 death of Woodland Hills stuntwoman Janet Wilder, 29, in Florida. Wilder died when a boat stunt went awry while making the Disney film “Gone Fishin.’ ”

Although minor negligence was found to have contributed to Wilder’s death, there was insufficient evidence of recklessness to pursue criminal charges, Florida prosecutors said.

From mid-1990 to mid-1995, 18 people in California died while making films, television shows or commercials. At least four deaths were reported in the industry in 1995.

Government statistics do not distinguish between stunt injuries and other types of workplace accidents in the film industry. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the motion picture industry in 1994 had an injury rate of 2.9%, far below the rate of 8.4% for all private industry.