Three passengers are critically injured, another man dead in New Jersey Turnpike accident. Morgan’s family is at hospital where the comedian is receiving care.
30 Rock actor Tracy Morgan was hospitalized in intensive care on Saturday after the Mercedes limousine bus that he was a passenger in was overturned as part of a six-car vehicle accident on the New Jersey Turnpike, authorities said.
One man, James McNair, was killed in the vehicle accident while three others who were also in the limo were in critical condition, confirmed New Jersey State Police Sgt. First Class Gregory Williams to The Hollywood insight. Comedians Harris Stanton and Ardie Fuqua, who were passengers in Morgan’s limo, were also confirmed to be injured and were hospitalized.
The accident occurred after the driver of a tractor trailer “failed to observe slow moving traffic ahead of him” and swerved into Morgan’s chauffeured limo in an attempt to avoid hitting vehicles, Williams told THR. That caused a “chain reaction” that resulted in an accident involving six vehicles.
Within the hour after the 1 am crash, Morgan and another man, Jeffrey Millea, were flown by a New Jersey state police helicopter to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Center, Williams said.
In a statement, Tracy Morgan’s rep Lewis Kay says that the comedian’s family is currently at the hospital with him while he is receiving care.
“Tracy remains in critical condition at Robert Wood Johnson Hospital. He sustained these injuries in an accident that occurred early this morning as one of several passengers in a chauffeured SUV returning from a tour date in Delaware,” the statement read. “His family is now with him and he is receiving excellent care. We don’t anticipate much of a change in his condition today but will provide a further update once more information becomes available.”
The crash occurred in the northbound lanes of the Cranbury Township turnpike near mile marker 71.5. Williams told The Associated Press that two tractor-trailers, a sports utility vehicle and two cars, along with Morgan’s limo bus, were involved in the accident.
Comedian Fuqua, who opened for Morgan on the stand up tour on Friday and posted an image from inside a Mercedes Sprinter SUV. The driver of the limousine “did not sustain life-threatening injuries,” according to a statement by the Delaware limo company Atlantic Transportation Services.
Morgan had been on his “Turn It Funny” stand up tour and had performed in Delaware on Friday night.
The 45-year-old comedian had joined Saturday Night Live in 1996 and was on the sketch-comedy program for seven years before leaving to star in The Tracy Morgan Show in 2003. That show lasted just one season. In 2006, Morgan found a long-running role in NBC’s hit show 30 Rock, which was created by SNL co-star Tina Fey.
The New Jersey Turnpike was closed for more than five hours after the crash and was reopened at about 6:30 a.m.
