Hollywood star Jeremy Renner has detailed exactly how his January 1 accident occurred, revealing that he was run over by his 14,330-pound Sno-Cat after attempting to jump back in the vehicle to save his nephew.
Renner said that he and his 27-year-old nephew, Alex, were attempting to tow a Ford Raptor out of the snow with his snow plough, reports Variety.
Jeremy told ABC News' Diane Sawyer, that as Alex undid the chain connecting the two vehicles after successfully getting it out of the snow, Renner's plough began to slide on the ice. Worried for his nephew's safety, Renner stuck one foot out of the plough to look back at Alex, neglecting to set the parking brake. That's when he lost his footing and fell out of the vehicle's cab.
He said, quoted by Variety: "I just happened to be the dummy standing on the dang track a little bit, seeing if my nephew was there. You shouldn't be outside the vehicle when you're operating it, you know what I mean? It's like driving a car with one foot out of the car," Renner said. "But it is what it was. And it's my mistake, and I paid for it."
Afraid that the vehicle would roll back and "sandwich" Alex with the truck, Renner attempted to jump back into the Sno-Cat to disengage it - at which point he was run over.
"That's when I screamed, by the way, when I went under the thing," Renner said. "'Not today, mother*****r!' is what I screamed. Sorry for the language."
Renner said he remembered "all of" the pain. "I was awake through every moment. It's exactly what you would imagine it would feel like," he said. "It is hard to imagine what that feels like, but when you look at the machine and you look at - I was on asphalt and ice. I wish I was on snow. It felt like someone took the wind out of you. Too many things are going on in the body to feel pain, it's everything. It's like your soul could have pain."
Recalling his injuries, Renner said he could "see my eye with my other eye."
Alex was able to hop into the Raptor before the plough hit the car, sending it into a nearby snow bank. When Alex got out of the car and ran to Renner, he "didn't think he was alive."