Exclusive: Passenger in crash that injured comedian Tracy Morgan speaks out
NEW YORK (WABC) -- A passenger who was with Tracy Morgan the night of this weekend's deadly crash on the New Jersey Turnpike is telling his story exclusively to Eyewitness News.
Comic Harris Stanton, 37, was treated and released from the hospital after the chain-reaction crash that left Morgan and two others critically injured and one man dead.
"We're in the limo, we're talking, cracking jokes, and there was no window in the limo so we weren't able to brace for anything, and the next thing I knew there was crunching metal all around me," said Stanton.
Authorities said 35-year-old Kevin Roper, a Wal-Mart truck driver from Georgia, apparently failed to slow for traffic ahead early Saturday in Cranbury Township and swerved at the last minute to avoid a crash. Instead, his big rig smashed into the back of Morgan's chauffeured Mercedes limo bus, killing comedian James "Jimmy Mack" McNair.
See the web extra below for more of Kemberly Richardson's interview with Harris Stanton.
"I remember thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm in an accident, I'm trying not to die, it was very traumatic," said Stanton, who said he didn't even know that the limo had flipped. He says no one was sitting in the far back section.
Stanton said he was wearing his seat belt but isn't sure if anyone else was.
"When it stopped, Tracy was on top of me and I didn't see anyone else. I was just saying, help me, get me out of here."
Stanton said Morgan wasn't moving. "He was unconscious, he was moaning and groaning, he was breathing. But I was the only one screaming," he said.
Morgan suffered a broken femur, a broken nose and several broken ribs and is expected to remain hospitalized for several weeks.
Stanton's wrist was severely broken, and his ankle was deeply bruised but he admits it's the psychological scars that hurt the most.
Also critically injured were Morgan's assistant, Jeffrey Millea, 36, of Shelton, Connecticut, and comedian Ardie Fuqua Jr., 43, of Jersey City.
Stanton is now back home in Brooklyn.
