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CNN Live Sunday

Priestley Listed in Serious Condition in Lexington Hospital

Aired August 11, 2002 - 18:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

CAROL LIN, CNN ANCHOR: And actor Jason Priestley is best known, of course, for his role as Brandon Walsh on the teen drama "Beverly Hills 90210," but Priestley also has another job, that of a race car driver. And today, his passion for speed landed him in the hospital, after he crashed during a practice run at the Kentucky Speedway.
Wes Hyland of affiliate WELX joins us from the University of Kentucky Medical Center in Lexington with the latest details there. Wes, how is Jason Priestley doing? Are his injuries life-threatening?

WES HYLAND, WELX CORRESPONDENT: Well, Carol, as far as we know right now, that is not the case. I can tell you that the last update we got from doctors here at UK was about two hours ago. They just are not saying much about this right now, trying to keep it as quiet as possible.

But we do know that Priestley is in serious condition, so pretty bad shape, but we do not believe that those injuries are life- threatening. He was brought here this morning as you said, after a crash. He was going about 180 miles an hour when he ran head on into a wall. So you can imagine the impact in a crash like that.

The injuries he has that doctors are telling us right now are two fractured feet, a fractured spine, also a closed head injury, and also some severe facial injuries. So a lot of problems for him, but doctors trying to get him stable right now. We do not know that he has gone into surgery yet, but can only assume, of course, that he will have to undergo many surgeries. This is a level I trauma center here in Lexington, so they are trained to deal with this type of situation when it occurs.

We do know that Priestley was responding, doctors say, early this morning. Now, we do not know if that means that he was just moving his feet, or if he was up talking to them. But they do say that he was responding.

As I told you, right now, we just are not getting much from doctors here. They say that they might have another update in a couple hours or so, but as far as we know right now, we are just like you, waiting to get word. The latest, Priestley is in serious condition here. His injuries do not appear to be life-threatening right now -- Carol.

LIN: Well, Wes, is there a formal investigation into what happened on that race track? HYLAND: There is going to be an investigation up at the track. The track is about an hour and a half from here in Gallatin County, Kentucky, near Cincinnati. They did go on with racing, we're told this afternoon. What they believe happened is that he ran over what's called oil dry, they lay that on the track after a car spills oil onto the track, and they were expecting the drivers to stay away from that area of the track, and Priestley somehow got a tire onto that oil dry, and spun out, and as we said, just went straight into the wall.

LIN: Well, we wish him well and hope that you'll be learning some results soon as to how he's going to be doing, the final prognosis. Thank you very much, Wes, for that live report.

HYLAND: Certainly.

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