Pop Goes The News — A video surfaced Monday showing the terrifying moment actress Paz de la Huerta was struck by an ambulance on a Toronto street in 2011.
The impact, which occurred during filming of a scene for Nurse 3D, knocked de la Huerta backwards and slammed her onto the pavement as co-star Katrina Bowden reacts in horror.
De la Huerta reportedly suffered a broken tailbone and a spinal fracture.
The video footage is evidence in a $55 million USD breach of contract lawsuit de la Huerta filed against Lionsgate in 2014.
The studio is in a California court on Tuesday to ask a judge to dismiss the case.
The video, obtained by outlets like TMZ and New York Daily News, shows De la Huerta and Bowden in a nighttime scene in a fake rain storm in downtown Toronto. As they approach the curb, an ambulance driven by a stuntman pulls up and hits de la Huerta.
She drops an umbrella and falls backwards as Bowden quickly backs up and raises her hands to her face.
CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE VIDEO
“As you can see in the video, what happened that night was terrible,” de la Huerta told the Daily News. “It has scarred me both physically and emotionally for many years.”
De la Huerta filed a lawsuit against Lionsgate in October 2014 alleging on the night of Oct. 15, 2011, she suffered “severe injuries and considerable pain and suffering” when an unnamed stunt driver “caused his ambulance to strike the plaintiff and knock her to the ground.”
She claimed Lionsgate “failed to set up the said stunt with proper design, practice, safety and precautions” and “failed to abide by safety standards and protocol.”
De la Huerta also claimed director Douglas Aarniokoski (a defendant in the case) hired an “incompetent, monotonic, emotionless” actress to dub her lines following the accident.
Among the defendants named in the suit are stunt coordinator Layton Morrison of Burlington, Ont., and the film’s Toronto-based cinematographer Boris Mojsovski.
In December 2014, Lionsgate filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit, claiming de la Huerta received workers’ compensation, which “constitutes her exclusive remedy.”
De la Huerta, who is best known for her role on Boardwalk Empire, claims the Toronto accident cost her a career in front of the cameras.
Nurse 3D had a limited foreign run and was released domestically on video.