Jeremy Renner says he’d get crushed by snowplow again to save his nephew
‘I’d do it again’: Jeremy Renner fights back tears in first interview since horrific snowplow accident where he describes how he broke 30 bones after being crushed by a 7-ton snowplow to save his nephew
- Renner was crushed on January 1 near his home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada.
- He was with his nephew trying to tow a car when the Snowcat rolled towards him.
- Renner tried to jump back into the moving plow, but was dragged back down.
In his first interview since being crushed by a 7-ton snowplow, actor Jeremy Renner says he would do it again to save his nephew’s life.
Renner suffered 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung and a shattered rib punctured his liver in the gruesome, death-defying accident on New Year’s Day.
He had been using the Snowcat plow to try to help his adult nephew dig his car out of deep snow near his Lake Tahoe home when he jumped and forgot to set the emergency brake.
The plow began to run towards his nephew.
It is believed that Renner tried to get back into the snowplow as it moved in an effort to stop it.
It was then that he was pulled under him and crushed.
Actor Jeremy Renner in his first interview since he was nearly killed in a snowplow accident on January 1.
Renner’s nephew was standing in the path of the snowplow when it started hurtling towards him.
Renner’s adult nephew tells Diane Sawyer that he thought his uncle was dead when he saw him lying in a “pool of blood”
Renner in the snowplow he was crushed in just 13 minutes before the accident on January 1.
In his first interview since the accident, he said ABC’s Diane Sawyerthat he stayed awake throughout the horrific incident and can remember the throbbing pain.
“I was awake the whole time,” he says.
The interview will air in its entirety on April 6, but a trailer was released today.
“I’d do it again,” he says firmly to an incredulous Sawyer.
It was going right towards my nephew. He would do it again.’
The special includes Renner’s nephew telling Sawyer that he thought he was dead.
‘I see him perfectly in a pool of blood coming out of his head. I ran to him, I didn’t think he was alive.
Also included are heartbreaking 911 dispatch calls where Renner can be heard moaning in the background.
There’s a lot of blood here. It’s in bad shape,” the caller can be heard saying.
Renner’s extensive injuries included a collapsed lung, a punctured liver and 30 broken bones.
Renner spent weeks in the hospital before being allowed to return home. She said she didn’t know how much of him was left after being crushed: ‘Will I look like a backbone? Like some weird science experiment?
Renner recovering in a wheelchair. The actor is still undergoing extensive physical therapy.
‘You’re not going to kill me. I chose to survive,’ Renner says in the ABC special airing next week.
Renner receiving a head massage from his sister. “I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone, but I’ve replenished myself with energy and love and titanium,” she joked in the special.
Renner broke 30 bones, including both ankles, his right knee, his right clavicle, and eight ribs.
He suffered a collapsed lung and his liver was punctured by one of his broken ribs.
“I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone, but I’ve been replenished and filled with love and titanium again,” he joked.
He told Sawyer that he considers himself a ‘lucky man’ when he looks in the mirror, and that he ‘chose to survive’, thinking ‘you’re not going to kill me’.
Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph will air on ABC Thursday, April 6 at 10pm EST.