John Bernecker suffered serious head injuries and died after he fell onto a concrete floor in 2017

The family of a late stuntman who died following an accident while filming an episode of The Walking Dead has been awarded $8.6m (£6.6m) by a US jury.

John Bernecker suffered serious head injuries when he fell onto a concrete floor while filming a stunt in 2017. He died two days later in hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.

Broadcasters AMC confirmed the news: “We are saddened to report that John Bernecker, a talented stuntman for The Walking Dead and numerous other television shows and films, suffered serious injuries from a tragic accident on set.”

Bernecker’s parents, Susan and Hagen Bernecker, sued AMC and several other parties involved in the show for failing to meet safety standards, leading to the death of their son.

A jury in Georgia has now awarded civil damages to the family, but decided that AMC Networks was not negligent.

During the six-day trial, the jury were shown a frame-by-frame breakdown of a video of the accident, which occurred while Bernecker was playing a scene in which he was supposed to fall over a railing and off a balcony, landing on a pad around 21ft (6.5m) below.

Lawyers for AMC and production company Stalwart Films argued the stuntman’s death was an unforeseen accident, which happened after he missed the pad.

Jeff Harris, the lawyer representing Bernecker’s parents, claimed their son’s death was “entirely preventable.”

“There are a zillion different ways that this stunt could have been thrown off, but there just wasn’t any planning for it,” he said, according to Deadline.

AMC said The Walking Dead set met industry standards on stunt safety.

“That has been the case across the production of 10 seasons and more than 150 episodes, and it continues to be the case today, notwithstanding this very sad and isolated accident,” the company added.

The jury found Stalwart Films shared responsibility for the accident with three members of the production crew, Bernecker himself, and TWD 8, which was described as an AMC Networks entity.

Bernecker’s other stunt credits included Black Panther, Logan and The Fantastic Four.