There were so many car crashes in the Blues Brothers movies it is a miracle no one was seriously injured or killed. John Landis has a poor safety record.
In 1982, during the filming of "Twilight Zone" actor Vic Morrow and child extras Myca Dinh Le (age 7) and Renee Shin-Yi Chen (age 6) were killed in an accident involving an out of control helicopter. The three were caught under the aircraft when it crashed. Director John Landis and four other crew members were charged with involuntary manslaughter. The prosecutors attempted to show that Landis was reckless, and had not told the parents and others of the children's proximity to explosives and helicopters and of limitations on their working hours. He admitted that he had violated the California law regulating employment of children, by using the children after hours, and conceded that that was "wrong." But he denied culpability. Numerous members of the film crew testified that the director was warned, but ignored these dangers. After a nine month jury trial during 1986 and 1987, Landis, represented by criminal defense attorney Harland Braun, and the other crew members were acquitted of the charges.
Landis was later reprimanded for circumventing the State of California's child labor laws in hiring the two children. This tragedy resulted in stricter safety measures and enforcement of child labor laws in California. The parents of the children sued, and eventually settled out of court with the studio for $2 million per family. Morrow's children, one of them being actress Jennifer Jason Leigh, who was 20 at the time, also settled out of court for an undisclosed sum. Landis has never acknowledged culpability for the accident.
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