Date: 8/6/2008 10:23 PM
By HOLBROOK MOHR
Associated Press Writer
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) _ The woman who was injured along with Morgan Freeman in a weekend car accident apparently is a friend of the Oscar-winning actor who had offered him a ride home, a crash witness says.
Freeman, 71, was driving a 1997 Nissan Maxima that authorities said belongs to Demaris Meyer, 48, of Memphis, Tenn., when the car veered off a rural road Sunday night a few miles from Freeman’s home in the Mississippi Delta. The car flipped at least twice.
Bill Rogers, a retired police officer who was the first person to arrive at the scene, said a dazed Freeman told him that he and Meyer were headed to his home in Charleston, a small town some 90 miles south of Memphis.
“He said that she had offered him a ride home; that they were friends and she had offered him a ride home and she didn’t really know the way and so he was going to drive the vehicle,” Rogers said Tuesday, recalling a conversation he had with the actor.
Freeman’s friend and business partner, Bill Luckett, has told the Commercial Appeal newspaper that Meyer is the actor’s friend.
Rogers said he talked to Freeman and Meyer in attempt to keep them conscious — something he was trained to do as a police officer.
“They said they were coming from Clarksdale,” Rogers said.
Freeman owns several businesses in Clarksdale, about 40 miles from his home, including the Ground Zero Blues Club and a restaurant named Madidi. Ashley Norris, the club’s manager, said Wednesday that Freeman had not been there the night of the accident. No one answered the phone at Madadi.
Rescuers used a jaws-of-life machine to free “The Dark Knight” star and Meyer from the wreckage. Freeman was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn. He suffered a broken arm, broken elbow and shoulder damage.
Hospital spokeswoman Kathy Stringer said Wednesday that Freeman was still listed in serious condition. The actor had surgery Monday to reconnect nerves and repair damage to his left arm and hand, according to his publicist, Donna Lee. Lee said Freeman will make a full recovery.
Hospital officials say Meyer isn’t listed in the hospital’s registry. However, under medical privacy laws, people can request that their names not be listed as patients at a hospital.
A Mississippi Highway Patrol officer said Meyer was in the Tennessee hospital when the agency called to see how she and Freeman were doing Monday night.
Calls to Meyer’s home Wednesday were not answered. Her condition was not immediately available. Rogers said Meyer did not appear to be injured as severely as Freeman.
Not much is known about Meyer. Rogers said she appeared to be an avid gardener — a hobby reportedly enjoyed by Freeman and his wife — because several gardening tools were flung around the accident scene when the car’s trunk was ripped open by the impact.
Freeman won an Oscar for his role in “Million Dollar Baby.” His screen credits also include “Driving Miss Daisy” and “The Bucket List.”
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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Without any inside information, I raised two issues earlier this week on the Morgan Freeman accident. The first raised was the question as to whether the hydroplaning because of the tires on the vehicle Freeman was driving could have been the culprit. News reports have now made it clear that Freeman’s accident was caused by hydroplaning:
According to the Post Chronicle: “Morgan Freeman was driving with a friend, Demaris Meyer, Sunday night when heavy rain may have led to his horrific car accident.” See http://www.postchronicle.com/news/original/article_212162424.shtm
The cause of such hydroplaning accidents is often caused by having put the tires of the vehicle with the most traction on the front of the vehicle, not the back, per the manufacturer’s recommendations. If such is the case, the installer or seller of such tires could be responsible for all of the injuries suffered in this wreck. See http://fishtail.tv
The other issue I commented on earlier this week was the likelihood that Freeman could have suffered a brain injury in this wreck, something that can completely change the life of someone of his age. This Post Chronicle story also makes it clear that he was unconscious. It is critical that Freeman be checked for amnesia, not just of the wreck, which he clearly has, but also of the events of the days following. How long he is amnestic will predict whether he has a good outcome or serious problems from such concussion. See our Concussion Clinic videos at http://youtube.com/profile?user=braininjuryattorney