The "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" film crew transformed local landmarks into spectacular rubble last summer, but the carnage for one Chicago area woman was all too real.

Little Village native Gabriela Cedillo, 25, still is recovering from traumatic brain injuries she suffered during a stunt for the film Sept. 1, just over the state line in Hammond. Cedillo was working as an extra when a cable pulling another car broke loose and smashed through the windshield of her Scion, hitting her in the head, according to an Indiana Occupational Safety and Health Administration report.

The scene in which Cedillo was injured was among the last filmed in the Chicago area — Paramount closed the set immediately after the accident and ended filming in the region the next day, though they had scheduled three more shooting days with the Chicago Film Office. The movie hits theaters Wednesday.

After multiple surgeries and months of physical therapy, Cedillo is living with family in suburban Brookfield. The aspiring actress remains partially paralyzed on her left side and has yet to receive any money toward her six-figure medical bills from the film's production company, Paramount Pictures, her attorney said. Cedillo's family in October filed a lawsuit against Paramount and several companies involved in the production.

Cedillo, who worked as a bank teller before the accident, now has trouble speaking and faces dim prospects for recovery, her attorney said. Her family declined to talk with a reporter.

"She has gotten to a point where she is aware of (media coverage), and they don't want her to be upset by it," said Cedillo's lawyer, Todd Smith.

Asked whether Paramount had paid for any of Cedillo's medical expenses, a company spokesman responded via email Tuesday: "This was a tragic accident and our thoughts and prayers are with Gabriela and her family. The family is not discussing the matter publicly, and we respect their privacy."

The sequence in which Cedillo was injured was filmed on a section of Cline Avenue in Hammond — and the footage, if not the actual accident — appears to have made the film. Early trailers show giant robot "Dreads" crushing cars as they lunge down a highway with the massive white fuel tanks of BP's northwest Indiana oil refinery in the background.

Cedillo was hurt during a stunt called a "cable-pull rollover," a common way of simulating a car being flipped over with precision timing, said Conrad Palmisano, a veteran stuntman who was on the set the day Cedillo was hurt. A cable is welded to the underside of a car, which is towed behind a trailer rigged with a sort of catapult that will jerk the cable and flip the car, which is safer and easier than using ramps or explosions to roll the car, Palmisano said.

Cedillo's lawyers say the weld was tragically shoddy, but Palmisano said the stunt was relatively common and safe — the same crew had performed several similar stunts using the cable rig, and used other, more dangerous techniques to flip cars earlier that day.

In an account of the accident that matches allegations in Cedillo's lawsuit, Palmisano recalls Cedillo was driving in the oncoming lanes of traffic, some 50 feet away from the stunt car, when the cable snapped.

The IOSHA report cleared the production company of violating any agency rules and called the accident "unforeseeable." Smith last fall called the agency's conclusion "disappointing" and "ridiculous."

Palmisano was driving a "blocker car" alongside the tow-car. Had the tow-car begun to roll out of control, Palmisano's job would have been to drive his car into its path to protect others.

"I heard her car hit the center divider just slightly behind me, I remember hearing a bang and wondering, 'What the heck was that?'" he said.

"Had she got there a half a second earlier or later, it never would have happened. The stars just misaligned for a millisecond."

agrimm@tribune.com