Morgan Freeman Car Crash
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James Joyner @ Gone Hollywood | Monday, August 4, 2008 |
CNN BREAKING: “Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman is in serious condition after a car accident in Mississippi, according to hospital officials.”
Here’s AP’s preliminary report:
Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman has been injured in car accident in Mississippi and is in a hospital in Memphis. Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer says Freeman is in serious condition.
The hospital, commonly known as The Med, is an acute-care teaching facility that serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.
More details as they become available.
Freeman is 71 years old but it sounds like they’ve taken him to the right facility.
UPDATE: The Press Association:
Mississippi state troopers told showbiz website TMZ.com that Freeman was involved in the crash at around 11.30pm local time on Sunday (5.30am BST), north of the small town of Ruleville. He was airlifted from the accident scene to the hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is being treated.
State troopers told TMZ.com that the Oscar-winning actor was talking before he was taken to the hospital.
That much is encouraging.
More from NPR:
Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, said he arrived at the accident scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about 4 miles west of Charleston, not far from where Freeman owns a home with his wife.
McFerrin said it appeared that Freeman’s car was airborne went it left the highway and landed in a ditch.
“They had to use the jaws of life to extract him from the vehicle,” McFerrin said. “He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.” McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor. When one person tried to snap a photo with a cell phone camera, Freeman joked, “no freebies, no freebies,” McFerrin said.
