Actor Morgan Freeman is injured in car accident (Wizbang Pop!)

Oscar-winning actor Morgan Freeman was injured in a car accident late Sunday night and is in a hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

Regional Medical Center spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Freeman, 71, is in serious condition. The hospital is about 90 miles north of the accident scene in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Mississippi Highway Patrol spokesman Sgt. Ben Williams confirmed Freeman was in a wreck shortly before midnight Sunday, but said he was still gathering information and had few details Monday.

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.

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Comments (3)

I certainly pray for his sp... (Below threshold)

1. Posted by Paul Hooson | August 4, 2008 1:54 PM | Score: 1 (1 votes cast)

Paul Hooson:

I certainly pray for his speedy recovery. Morgan Freeman is a great American actor and I am big fan of his work.

At least he was in a car at the time with the protection of airbags, seatbelts, etc. I had a very serious motor scooter accident in April, where I skidded during a sudden hailstorm during normally good weather and got thrown and rolled about 20-25 feet on hard pavement and twisted the steel frame on my motorcycle. But since I was wearing body armor, only four damaged ligament capsules in my knee were my worst of many injuries other than smelling of gasoline from the broken fuel tank.

Ironically, I was headed to my lawyer's office to sign some life insurance papers on behalf of my mother who had died, but I nearly ended up dead as well in this sudden accident.