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Hollywood star Freeman survives serious car crash

Oscar-winning US actor Morgan Freeman was hospitalized on Monday with a broken arm and other injuries after the car he was driving careened off a highway and rolled several times, authorities said.

Freeman, 71, lost control of the car late on Sunday near a home he keeps in Charleston, Mississippi. He was airlifted to a Memphis, Tennessee, hospital 160km away.

“The vehicle went off the edge of the road and flipped several times,” Mississippi Highway Patrol Sergeant Ben Williams said.

No other car was involved in the accident.

A spokeswoman at Regional Medical Center in Memphis said Freeman was in serious condition but gave no details.

Freeman’s publicist, Donna Lee, said later that the actor’s injuries included a broken arm, a broken elbow and “minor shoulder damage.”

She said he would undergo surgery later on Monday or yesterday, but was in good spirits.

“He says he’ll be OK and is looking forward to a full recovery,” Lee said.

Rescue workers had to pry Freeman from the vehicle using hydraulic tools, but the actor appeared coherent as he was tended to beside the ambulance, said Clay McFerrin, editor of the Charleston Sun-Sentinel newspaper.

When Freeman, lying prone on a backboard, noticed onlookers taking pictures with cellphones, McFerrin said he heard the actor joke, “No freebies, no freebies.”

Both Freeman and a female passenger, identified as Demaris Meyer, were wearing seat belts, but air bags did not deploy in the automobile registered to her, Williams said. He said he did not know the extent of Meyer’s injuries.

Lee described Meyer and Freeman as friends but had no information about her condition. Meyer is a close friend of Freeman’s wife.Police said no drugs or alcohol were involved in the accident, TMZ.com said.

Freeman won an Oscar in 2005 for his supporting role in the boxing drama Million Dollar Baby.
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