‘I would do it again’: Jeremy Renner fights back tears in first interview since horrific snowplough accident, in which he describes breaking 30 bones after being crushed under a 7-ton snowplough to save his to rescue nephews
- Renner was crushed on January 1 near his home in Lake Tahoe, Nevada
- He was trying to tow a car with his nephew when the snow cat rolled towards him
- Renner tried to jump back into the moving plow but was swept away
In his first interview since being crushed by a 7-ton snowplow, actor Jeremy Renner said he would do it again to save his nephew’s life.
Renner suffered 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung and his liver was punctured by a fractured rib in the horrific, death-defying accident on New Year’s Day.
He had been using the Snowcat plow to help his adult nephew pull his car out of deep snow near his Lake Tahoe home when he jumped out and forgot to put the emergency brake on.
The plow began to shoot towards his nephew.
Renner is believed to have tried to get back into the snowplow while it was moving to get it to stop.
He was pulled underneath and crushed.
Actor Jeremy Renner in his first interview since he nearly died in a snow plow accident on January 1st
Renner’s nephew got in the way of the snowplow as it raced 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 that crushed him just 13 minutes before the January 1 accident
In his first interview since the accident, he told ABC’s Diane Sawyer that he stayed awake during the horrific incident and remembered the searing pain.
“I was awake the whole time,” he says.
The interview will air in full on April 6, but a trailer was released today.
“I would do it again,” he says firmly to an incredulous Sawyer.
“It came straight to my nephew. I would do it again.”
The special includes Renner’s nephew telling Sawyer he thought he was dead.
“I just see him perfectly in a pool of blood coming out of his head. I ran towards him, I didn’t think he was alive.’
Harrowing 911 calls are also included, with Renner moaning in the background.
“There’s a lot of blood here. He’s in bad shape,” the caller heard.
Renner’s extensive injuries included a collapsed lung, a punctured liver, and 30 broken bones
Renner spent weeks in the hospital before being allowed home. He said he didn’t know how much was left of him after being crushed: “Will I just look like a backbone? Like a weird science experiment?’
Renner recovers in a wheelchair. The actor is still undergoing extensive physical therapy
“You’re not going to kill me. I chose to survive,” Renner says on the ABC special, which airs next week
Renner gets a head massage from his sister. “I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bones, but I’ve been refueled and refilled with love — and titanium,” he joked on the special
Renner fractured 30 bones, including both ankles, his right knee, his right collarbone 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 refueled and refilled with love — and titanium,” he joked.
He told Sawyer that he considered himself “lucky” when he looked in the mirror and that he “decided to survive” because he thought “you’re not going to kill me.”
Jeremy Renner: The Diane Sawyer Interview – A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph airs Thursday, April 6 at 10 p.m. EST on ABC.