Details remain sketchy except that, at press time, stuntman Christopher Sayour was still in ‘very serious condition,’ more than a week after falling 12 metres on the set of Smallville in Langley, B.C.

Sayour suffered multiple fractures and internal injuries on July 26 and was airlifted to hospital in New Westminster, B.C., where his condition was upgraded from critical to serious. Don McLaughlin, a spokesman for the regional medical authority Fraser Health, would not elaborate.

‘All I can tell you is he is listed in very serious condition’ he says.

Warner Bros. Television resumed production the next day. In a bare-bones statement issued jointly with broadcaster The WB, the producers say their ‘thoughts and prayers’ are with Sayour, a U.S.-born dual citizen, his family and friends. Family members are at his side.

Sayour’s union is similarly tight-lipped. ‘We don’t even know specifically what happened,’ said Alison Reid, communications officer for the Union of British Columbia Performers. She said no comment would be forthcoming for another week.

The reticence may owe something to the high profile of the B.C. production industry.

‘I think that could be part of it,’ said Linday Kinney, general manager of SHAPE, an arms-length provincial agency that helps the industry develop safe work practices. ‘When Halle Berry was here doing Catwoman, I had The Globe and Mail call me because she had sprained her finger.’

‘If you look at our reports we get from the workers’ compensation board, we have by and large a lower injury rate than any other industry in B.C.,’ she says.

Of the 51 stunt-related accidents reported from 1997 to 2004, none fatal, by far the largest category is ‘fall to lower level,’ which accounted for 14 incidents.

Donna Freeman, manager of corporate public affairs for WorkSafeBC, the province’s worker compensation agency, says B.C.’s only filming fatality occurred in 1996, when a parachute failed to open during a skydiving stunt. By comparison, that same year saw 18 forestry fatalities.

Police have ruled out foul play in Sayour’s case, and WorkSafeBC is treating the fall as a workplace accident. Freeman says that investigations for serious injuries and fatalities typically take a minimum of eight weeks.

Joe Doserro, a veteran stunt performer who worked with Sayour on I, Robot, says ‘It’s very rare for something bad like [his fall] to happen.’

‘We pride ourselves on that,’ said Doserro. ‘Most of the guys have multiple disciplines and certifications. Unfortunately, when there’s a whole bunch of links in the chain, something can go wrong, and something quite simple can turn out to be dangerous.’

Doserro says that Sayour began working on Smallville as the lead double for series star Tom Welling, and in the last year he also became stunt coordinator.

The accident comes just as the availability of stunt work in B.C. appears to be declining, despite the current production boom.

‘Around the time we shot I, Robot, we’d just had the Vin Diesel movie, Scary Movie, a few series and just a ton of features going on, taking on as many stunt performers as we could give,’ Doserro said. ‘Since then, it’s slowed down a bit.’

Stunts Canada would not comment on Sayour’s case specifically or on the general level of stunt work. However, Kinney said she shares Doserro’s impression. ‘We had a lot of western movies for a while, and now you don’t see them any more. I think it’s all kind of cyclical.’