Stuntman gravely injured on James Bond set

MILAN, Italy - A stuntman was seriously injured in a car crash while filming an action sequence for the new James Bond movie on a famously winding lakeside road in northern Italy, a local official said Thursday.

The London-based production company for "Quantum of Solace" said that an experienced stunt driver of an Alfa Romeo car remained hospitalized in serious condition following the accident Wednesday. A second stunt driver in the same car also was injured, but less seriously.

"Filming with the second unit on 'Quantum of Solace' will be suspended while the accident is investigated," the statement said. It noted that neither director Marc Forster, Daniel Craig nor any other cast members were at the location when the accident occurred.

The identities of the stunt drivers weren't released.

A spokesman for the town of Limone sul Garda, where crew have been filming for the past two weeks, said the Alfa Romeo crashed into a wall during a chase sequence involving a truck and Bond's Aston Martin along the Gardesana, a curvy, two-lane lakeside road with gorgeous panoramas and many tunnels.

A helicopter on standby during the filming flew the seriously injured stunt driver to Verona, where he underwent surgery, said town spokesman Marco Girardi, who also was acting as a liaison to the production company.

He said the driver suffered serious head injuries.

"They chose this road because it is full of curves and tunnels. It will give the film a lot of impact," Girardi said.

He said that the filming was scheduled to wrap up Wednesday, and that they were in the final hours when the accident occurred.

The accident was the second on the Bond set in four days, after an Aston Martin being delivered to the set skidded off the road in heavy rain and landed in Lake Garda on Saturday. No one was injured and the car was later fished from the lake.

On Thursday, the production company was packing up equipment, including cars, to close the set. Workers and officials refused any comment to an Associated Press photographer.

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