Heavy rain may have caused Freeman crash

Heavy rain may have been the cause of a car crash which left actor Morgan Freeman critically ill in hospital, according to US reports today.

The Oscar-winning actor was in “good spirits” in hospital after breaking his arm and elbow in the crash, his spokesman said.

But witnesses said the 71-year-old actor was unconscious immediately after the car he was driving flipped over and crashed into a ditch on a highway in rural Mississippi shortly before midnight local time on Sunday (6am BST yesterday).

The road was slick from a heavy rainfall that left water in the ditch surrounding the car up to eight inches deep, neighbours told the Memphis Commercial Appeal.

Bill Rogers, 53, of Charleston, told the newspaper that he saw the one-car crash from his house.

“I was watching TV, and I heard the skid,” he said.

“I looked out the window and saw the car flipping head over end.

“I began to see headlights and tail-lights flipping.”

Mr Rogers, a former police officer, said Freeman was unconscious along with his passenger Demaris Meyer, 48, of Memphis, when he first saw them.

He went to call the emergency services and when he returned, both of the victims were conscious, he said.

Ms Meyer, who works for FedEx, seemed alert, but Freeman “wasn’t totally coherent”, Mr Rogers added.

Bill Luckett, a business partner of Freeman’s in the Ground Zero Blues Club chain, told the newspaper that the actor needed surgery and could need three to four months to recover.

Ms Meyer, whom he described as a friend, was “in better condition than Morgan”, Mr Luckett said.

Freeman was airlifted to the Regional Medical Centre in Memphis, Tennessee, where his condition was described as serious“.

Highway Patrol spokesman Sergeant Ben Williams said Freeman was driving Ms Meyer’s 1997 Nissan Maxima when the car left a rural highway and overturned several times.

“There’s no indication that either alcohol or drugs were involved,” Mr Williams said.

He added that both Freeman and Ms Meyer were wearing seatbelts.

The crash happened north of the small town of Ruleville in rural Tallahatchie County in the Mississippi Delta.

Freeman, who plays Lucius Fox in the latest Batman movie the 'Dark Knight', was airlifted from the accident scene to the hospital, around 90 miles away in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is being treated.

State troopers told TMZ.com that Freeman was talking before he was taken to the hospital.

The hospital, commonly known as The Med, is an acute-care teaching facility which serves patients within 150 miles of Memphis.

Clay McFerrin, editor of Sun Sentinel in Charleston, said he arrived at the crash scene on Mississippi Highway 32 soon after it happened about four miles west of Charleston.

Freeman, who won an Oscar in 2005 for his role in 'Million Dollar Baby', lives near Charleston with his wife, Myrna, on a 126-acre ranch with a main house, peach trees and horse stables.

Mr McFerrin said it appeared that the car Freeman was driving was airborne when it left the highway and landed in a ditch.

“They had to use the jaws of life (hydraulic cutters) to extract him from the vehicle,” he said.

“He was lucid, conscious. He was talking, joking with some of the rescue workers at one point.”

Mr McFerrin said bystanders converged on the scene trying to get a glimpse of the actor.

He added that when one person tried to take a photo with a mobile phone camera, Freeman said: “No freebies, no freebies.”