Tracy Morgan is sharing the brutal details of the fatal car crash with friends after they were hit by a Walmart truck.
Morgan, 57, sat down with Saturday Night Live’s Marcello Hernández for Variety & CNN’s Actors on Actors episode that was released on Wednesday, June 10. In the conversation, the Fall and Rise of Reggie Dinkins star recalled getting into an accident with friends Ardie Fuqua and the late James McNair, who was killed in the crash.
Back in 2014, Morgan was riding in a limousine with Fuqua and McNair — who also went by the stage name Jimmy Mack — down the New Jersey Turnpike after finishing up a comedy show.
“We did a show together that night in Delaware, and we got hit. That truck was doing 70 miles per hour with 85,000 pounds of frozen food in the back,” Morgan recalled. “And my friend Jimmy Mack — God bless — his neck was broke so bad his face was on his back.”
The topic of the crash came up after Hernández, 28, mentioned that he was friends with Fuqua, 55, who has been a longtime pal of Morgan. Morgan shared that the standup was one of the passengers in the limo crash and also suffered from serious injuries.
“That’s my guy. He was in the accident with me. He was in a coma for 20 days,” Morgan said of Fuqua. “I was in it for 10 days.”
Hernández replied, “I speak for all of us when I say we are so happy and so blessed that you’re here, man.”
Morgan expressed his gratitude for Hernández’s sentiments and revealed that SNL boss Lorne Michaels reached out to Morgan’s ex-wife, Sabina, to check on his condition after the wreck. (Morgan and Sabrina were high school sweethearts who were married from 1987 to 2009. Sabrina died in 2016 following a battle with cancer.)
“Lorne must have called my ex-wife about a thousand times to see if I was out the coma,” he recalled.
Not only was Morgan placed in a medically induced coma at the time of the incident, but he sustained multiple injuries including a shattered femur, broken nose, a traumatic brain injury and several broken ribs. After Morgan awoke, the comedian underwent months of physical therapy and rehabilitation so he could learn how to walk and talk again.
The truck driver pleaded not guilty to criminal charges. An investigation conducted by the National Transportation Safety Board found that the driver had been on the road for 13 and a half hours. (The legal limit for a truck driver’s work day is 14 hours.)
Morgan ultimately sued Walmart for negligence. The parties settled the lawsuit in 2015 for an undisclosed amount. The Saturday Night Live alum hinted on Wednesday that he got a generous payment.
“You know why we do comedy? Necessity. But once you make it, then you surround yourself with people that need to do this as a necessity. You might not have no bills to pay, because you made it. But they got bills to pay, so they got to be funny,” he said. “I got hit by a Walmart truck, so with the money I got, I don’t need to do this. But I surround myself with people that need to do this and love it.”
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