Harrison Ford's injury during the filming of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens" in 2014 is costing a British film company a $2 million health and safety fine.
Foodles Production, which is owned by the Disney, was slapped with the fine by the Aylesbury Crown Court for breaches in connection with Ford's accident at London's Pinewood Studios, reported The Guardian.
Ford, who played the iconic role of Hans Solo in the "Star Wars" series, suffered a broken leg when a hydraulic door on the Millennium Falcon set malfunctioned. The door performed like a "blunt guillotine" as Ford passed under it, pinning him to the ground by the pelvis, a court which upheld the fine heard on Wednesday, said The Guardian.
The Health and Safety Executive, the British equivalent to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, had stated that the door that trapped Ford closed with the force of a small car, according to Agence France-Presse.
Foodles Production had admitted earlier to two breaches of health and safety laws during filming of the high-grossing movie, said AFP.
"If you have a risk assessment and you do not communicate it, what is the point of having one?" Judge Francis Sheridan said in court, charging that Foodles failed to tell Ford about the door's dangers, per AFP. "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."
A special effects operator was in charge of closing the door remotely on cue from a spotter, noted AFP.
"This was an innocent mistake by bona fide professionals," said Charles Gibson, who defended Foodles Production, adding that the incident was a "failure in communication" between the production team and Ford. "Lessons were learned. The good health and safety record of this production continued to the end."
The Guardian said doctors took Ford into surgery to screw together the fractured tibia and fibula bones in his left leg and plastic surgery for a "deep laceration" to his left hand. He later returned to the filming.
"Star Wars: The Force Awakens" went on to make more than $2 billion at theaters worldwide, according to Box Office Mojo.