(Reuters) - Former U.S. congressman James Traficant of Ohio, who served seven years in prison for bribery, tax evasion and other crimes, was hospitalized in critical condition on Wednesday after a tractor he was riding rolled over on him, local media reported.

The accident happened just before 8 p.m. Tuesday and Traficant, 73, was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center. His wife, Tish Traficant, told Youngstown's The Vindicator newspaper that he was in critical condition.

The maverick congressman, a former sheriff from the gritty industrial city of Youngstown, was convicted in April 2002 of racketeering, bribery, obstruction of justice and tax evasion. The U.S. House of Representatives then voted nearly unanimously to expel him, the second such expulsion since the Civil War.

(Reporting by Fiona Ortiz; Editing by Bill Trott)