Production company of Star War film ordered to pay £1.6m after Harrison Ford had leg crushed

 
Pic: Harrison Ford
Entertainment reporter(wp/es):
The production company behind the latest Star Wars film has been fined £1.6 million for health and safety breaches after Harrison Ford's leg was crushed during filming.
The actor was injured by a hydraulic door whilst on the set of the Millennium Falcon spaceship whilst filming Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Stuidos in 2014.
Foodles Production (UK) Ltd was handed the penalty at Aylesbury Crown Court on Wednesday after the Disney-owned company admitted two breaches of health and safety law following the incident, in which Ford was knocked to the ground and pinned down by the steel door.
The Hollywood superstar was reprising his role as Han Solo in Star Wars: The Force Awakens at Pinewood Studios in Buckinghamshire in June 2014 when he was hit by the door, which had been designed to mimic the action of a door on the original set.
 At a previous hearing, the court was told he could have been killed in the incident.

The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) said the power of the rapidly-closing door meant Ford was hit with a force comparable to the weight of a small car.
Judge Francis Sheridan said the firm had failed to communicate its risk assessment to Ford.
He said: "The greatest failing of all on behalf of the company is a lack of communication, a lack because, if you have a risk assessment and you do not communicate it, what is the point of having one?
"That is the most serious breach here.

"If only they had included Mr Ford in all the discussions, he might have at least been alert to the dangers that he had to avoid."
In sentencing, Judge Sheridan said the remote operation of the door by someone who could not see the actor was a "crazy approach" to health and safety.

"Had the wrong button been pressed it would have continued to crush down on Mr Harrison Ford. It's just incredible that so much was left to chance."
He said it was "deplorable" that the door relied upon human intervention to stop it from closing and should have had an automatic emergency cut off installed.
Foodles pleaded guilty at a hearing in July to one count under section two of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, which related to a breach of duty in relation to employees, and a second under section three, a breach over people not employed by the company.
Two further charges, under Regulation 3(1) of the Management of Health and Safety at Work Regulations 1999, and one under Regulation 11(1) of the Provision and Use of Work Equipment Regulations 1998 were both withdrawn as the facts were
 incorporated into the two admitted breaches.
The HSE's divisional director Tim Galloway said: "This incident was foreseeable and preventable and could have resulted in more serious injury or even death.
"The power and speed of the door was such that, had Mr Ford or anyone else had been struck on the head by the door as it closed, they might easily have been killed.
"I think everyone would accept that all the people who work in the film industry have a right to know that the risks they take to entertain us, including when making action movies, are properly managed and controlled."