Actor Tracy Morgan attends the FX Networks Upfront premiere screening of “Fargo” at the SVA Theater in this April 9, 2014, file photo taken in New York. Morgan is in critical condition at a hospital in New Brunswick, N.J. Saturday morning, June 7, 2014, following a violent multi-vehicle crash on the New Jersey Turnpike overnight.NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. – Actor and comedian Tracy Morgan was critically injured Saturday after a tractor-trailer rammed into his chauffeured limousine bus, setting off a chain-reaction crash that left a fellow comedian dead and two others seriously hurt, authorities said.
A truck driver from Georgia was charged with death by auto in the crash that killed a man described as a mentor to the former “Saturday Night Live” and “30 Rock” cast member as the group traveled home from a standup comedy show in Delaware, officials said.
James McNair, 62, of Peekskill, New York, who performed as Jimmy Mack, died after the Mercedes limo bus carrying seven people overturned on the New Jersey Turnpike near Cranbury Township at about 1 a.m., state police Sgt. 1st Class Greg Williams said.
Morgan, 45, and Jeffrey Millea, 36, of Shelton, Connecticut, were flown from the accident scene to Robert Wood Johnson Hospital, where they were in critical condition, hospital spokesman Peter Haigney said.
Morgan remained in the intensive care unit at the hospital Saturday night and spokesman Lewis Kay said that his family was with him and he was “receiving excellent care.”