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, Tennessee. The car veered off a rural road on Sunday night a few miles from Freeman's home in the Mississippi Delta and 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 145km 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.
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 Centre in Memphis. 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. Calls to Meyer's home Wednesday were not answered.
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.
