A British stuntman who suffered brain damage while filming one of the Fast and the Furious films is suing the franchise for more than £1million in damages.
Joe Watts, 34, suffered a horrific fall on the set of the latest instalment while filming a staged fight with another stuntman.
He fell 25ft onto concrete and sustained a fractured skull which resulted in life-changing brain injuries.
The stunt required Mr Watts to be thrown over the shoulder of another performer off the side of an 8m high balcony.
However the horrific accident occurred when a safety wire designed to stop his fall failed and sent him crashing to the ground.
Watts was rushed to hospital in an air ambulance and put in an induced coma at the Royal London Hospital.
The stuntman, from Epsom, Surrey, and his fiancée Tilly Powell, 30, are now suing FF9 Pictures Ltd for alleged negligence over safety procedures.
He had been performing movie and TV stunts for four years, and appeared in blockbuster franchises including Star Wars, Mission Impossible and Game of Thrones.
Watts now claims his career has come to an end due to the accident.
The former sports massage therapist spent a month recovering in hospital followed by a further six weeks at the Wellington hospital.
Documents now lodged at the High Court by his solicitors Irwin Mitchell, Mr Watts, playing an Elite Guardsman, was filming a fight scene with another taking stuntman standing-in for Vin Diesel’s character Dom when the accident happened, reports the Daily Mail.
The accident occurred on the second take of the stunt where Mr Watts had been thrown over Dom’s right shoulder.
In the first take he was thrown over ‘Dom’s’ left shoulder and suspended above the floor by the safety wire which did its job.
But on the second take, a connector on the safety wire failed and he plummeted to the floor below, missing the crash mats, and hitting his head on the concrete floor.
Watts is accusing producers of negligently using a 'Maillon' connector when it was unsuitable and should not have been used - saying the connecter had not been assessed properly.
He also alleged that the company negligently failed to carry out a risk assessment that the safety wire might fall, that his trajectory might change if he was thrown in a different way to that which had been rehearsed, and failed to provide enough crash mats.
The Mirror has approached Universal Pictures for comment.
