Movie Crew Member Dies in Accident

A steel camera boom hit high-voltage power lines during filming of material for a Disney movie in the San Bernardino County desert, electrocuting one crew member and badly burning another.

Mathew Gordy, 31, of Woodland Hills, was killed and 33-year-old David Riggio of Encino was in the Grossman Burn Center at Sherman Oaks Hospital, where he was listed in serious condition Thursday.

They were filming live-action scenes Tuesday for the animated film “Dinosaur” when the boom struck the power lines, according to Disney spokeswoman Terry Curtin.

Gordy was taken by helicopter to Ridgecrest Community Hospital where he died from his injuries, said San Bernardino County Sheriff Gary Penrod.

Riggio was taken to the same facility but later transferred to Sherman Oaks.

A third crew member who was operating the camera boom was taken to the Ridgecrest hospital but suffered no injuries, the sheriff said.

Authorities said the crew, working for the Disney Feature Animation Group, had been filming in the Poison Canyon area on the outskirts of Trona, a remote Mojave Desert hamlet, for several months.

Riggio suffered burns and electrical injuries to his feet, hands and chest, said Dr. Peter Grossman, a surgeon at the center that bears his father’s name.

“He was on a large metal basket on a crane when it came in contact with the high-voltage wire. The current entered his hands, traveled through his body and exited through his feet,” Grossman said.

“The noticeable injuries were to his hands and feet. But there may be more underlying injuries that occurred to the muscle and nerves when the current traveled through his body.”

Such high electrical voltage “goes in like a bullet” and exits like “a hand grenade,” the doctor said.

Grossman said Riggio was scheduled for surgery Saturday morning and would be hospitalized 10 days to three weeks.

“He was concerned about the extent of injury to his feet,” Grossman said.

A man who answered the phone at Riggio’s residence, but declined to give his name, said that Riggio told him “he’s very lucky to be alive. . . . He’s still scared.”

Curtin said Gordy was employed to work on the film but was not a full-time Disney employee. His crew was shooting live material which was to be used as background in animation sequences, a first use of the technique by Disney, she said.

Disney expressed “its deepest sympathies to the family of Matt Gordy,” and “our heartfelt concerns to Dave Riggio,” Curtin said.

She disputed news reports that word of the accident was slow in reaching the men’s families and the incident was not made public until Thursday, two days after it happened.

“We were fielding questions about this [Wednesday],” Curtin said. “But our first concern was communicating with the family and then with Cal/OSHA, which is conducting an investigation.”

The cause of the accident was unknown, she said. “Right now it’s all speculative.”