Kevin Hart Has Just 3 Words for Driver Who Crashed Car

More than a month after a car crash sent him to the hospital with spinal fractures, Kevin Hart is breaking his silence. In a statement to E! News via his attorney, Hart, currently home from the hospital but still in recovery, said he has “nothing but love” for Jared Black, the man who was behind the wheel when the comedian’s 1970 Plymouth Barracuda rolled into a ditch.

“I have nothing but love for Jared and wish him and Rebecca a speedy recovery,” Hart’s Thursday, Oct. 10 statement read, also making mention of Black’s fiancé, Rebecca Broxterman, who was also a passenger in the vehicle.

The 40-year-old comedian and actor had been a passenger in the vehicle during the early morning hours of Sept. 1. According to the California Highway Patrol report, the accident was the result of the vehicle being operated in a “reckless fashion,” as Black “gunned the engine” and lost control, sending the vehicle into a spin as it “turned from southbound Cold Canyon Road to eastbound Mulholland Highway.”

As none of the passengers in the vehicle were wearing seatbelts at the time of the crash, both Hart and Black suffered back injuries when the vehicle veered off the road, crashed through a fence, and rolled down an embankment. Both Black and Broxterman were trapped in the car and had to be removed by responders.

Hart, along with Black, was taken to the hospital, where he underwent surgery to fuse the fractures in his spine – two in the thoracic part of his spine and one in the lumbar. He remained in the hospital for 10 days before being transferred to a live-in rehabilitation facility, with sources claiming that it will take “months” for the comedian to fully recovery.

Now back home and continuing physical rehab, Hart has officially returned to work. Earlier this week, sources told E! News that the actor’s doctor approved the return and that the comedian was in “good spirits” and was “mobile” and “getting around on his own” as he began work on a marketing campaign for the upcoming Jumanji film. Hart worked on the campaign alongside co-stars Dwayne Johnson, Danny DeVito and Danny Glover, who were all reportedly “happy to see him.”

Meanwhile, the car crash has also impacted Hart’s legal troubles. Earlier this month, Hart filed documents requesting a postponement of his upcoming trial in his court battle with former business partners Stand Up Digital, claiming that he would “not be ambulatory for at least another two months.”