The fatal “Midnight Rider” filming accident highlights the entertainment production industry's unique health and safety risks and the ongoing need to follow best practices to prevent injuries and deaths, safety experts say.

Camera assistant Sarah Jones was killed in February 2014 while trying to escape a freight train during the filming of the movie in Georgia, according to the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which cited and fined the production company.

The National Council for Occupational Safety and Health cited the “egregious nature” of the accident in last year's Preventable Deaths 2014 report, because the crew did not have permission to film on the train tracks but did so anyway, said Peter Dooley, a project consultant for the Longmeadow, Massachusetts-based workplace health and safety coalition.

“That's probably the biggest example of what not to do,” said Paul Holehouse, director of entertainment risk control at Aon/Albert G. Ruben Insurance Services Inc. in Sherman Oaks, California. “Everything they did was not according to the industry standard.”

While the number of workplace fatalities in the motion picture and sound recording industries fell to five in 2013 from 11 in 2011, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, industry safety experts say the dangers are ongoing.

Monona Rossol, president of New York City-based safety organization Arts, Crafts & Theater Safety Inc. and safety officer at United Scenic Artists Local 829 International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, has written reports leading to the shutdown of 14 productions since 1996 over hazards that include lead and asbestos.

“It's a serious, serious issue because they are terribly, terribly dangerous places,” she said.

Ms. Rossol has investigated unique production locations, including a World War II ship where she found a carbon dioxide tank in a confined engine room and an out-of-commission nuclear facility with no mobile phone access to allow for emergency calls.

“A lot of places that look really cool to the location scouts may not be safe,” she said.

The fast production pace, lower-level employees' discomfort in reporting safety concerns to producers and directors, independent contractors' fear of not being rehired if they raise safety issues and, notably, ever-changing locations, are among risks the industry faces, Mr. Dooley said.

“'Midnight Rider' was such a classic example of that,” he said. “They were dealing with a new location and didn't do enough preplanning to ensure that it was safe for everybody concerned.”

Best industry workplace safety practices include the Safety Pass Program that is run by the Burbank, California-based Contract Services Administration Trust Fund, Mr. Holehouse said. The program addresses OSHA's requirements that employees be trained, and the training documented, in the safe use of equipment and work practices, with courses covering environmental safety, forklift operation, fall protection, rigging safety and other issues.

However, basic safety precautions often are ignored, such as conducting a fire plan briefing on the first day of film production or alerting workers to the presence of lead and asbestos, Ms. Rossol said.

Insurers covering production risks work to mitigate exposures, though.

A key risk is an injury or illness to the “essential element” of the film or television production, a star whose absence can cost up to $1 million per day, Mr. Holehouse said. Certain actors are very physical and want to do their own stunts, which requires producers, brokers and insurers to work together to prevent injuries and consider alternate ways to achieve the same effect, including through editing techniques or using a stunt double, he said.