March 12, 1999
Web posted at: 9:17 p.m. EST (0217 GMT)

NASHVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- Country music legend George Jones has developed pneumonia and has been placed back on a ventilator as a result of critical injuries suffered in an auto wreck last weekend, a hospital spokesman told CNN.

Jones, 67, remains in critical but stable condition at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Doctors detected the pneumonia Friday morning, placed him on the ventilator to help him breathe and gave him medication to treat the pneumonia, hospital spokesman Matt Scanlan told CNN.

"He is responding well to the drugs," Scanlan said.

A fluid build-up in Jones' lungs is not life threatening, he said.

Jones suffered a collapsed lung and a lacerated liver when his sport-utility vehicle hit a bridge abutment near his home Saturday in Franklin, a suburb of Nashville. It took two hours for rescuers to free him from the vehicle and he was then airlifted to the hospital, where he was placed on life support.

He had been taken off the ventilator on Wednesday after showing remarkable improvement from his injuries.

Jones, elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1992, is one of the giants of country music, famous for hits such as "He Stopped Loving Her Today" and "The Race Is On." During a 40-year career, he has recorded more than 150 albums that have sold more than 30 million copies.

He also is host of "The George Jones Show" on The Nashville Network.