JACKSON, Miss. – The woman who was injured along with Morgan Freeman in a weekend car accident apparently is a friend of the 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, Tenn., when the car veered off a rural road Sunday night a few miles from Freeman’s home in the Mississippi Delta. Rescuers used a jaws-of-life machine to free the star and Meyer from the wreckage. Freeman was airlifted to the Regional Medical Center in Memphis, Tenn. He suffered a broken arm, broken elbow and shoulder damage.