Jeremy Renner shares the ‘small yet impactful’ error leading to a tragic snowplow incident

Jeremy Renner, a well-known Hollywood actor, recently discussed a minor yet significant error he made that led to a terrifying snowplow incident that nearly took his life.

During the New Year’s Day of 2023, Renner found himself in a harrowing situation when he was pulled under a snowplow while attempting to rescue his nephew, Alexander Fries, in front of his Lake Tahoe residence.

In his upcoming memoir detailing the incident, the 54-year-old star admitted, “I failed to activate the parking brake or switch off the metal tracks.”

‘In that moment — an innocent, critical, life-changing moment — that tiny but monumental slip of the mind would change the course of my life for ever.’

Renner was in the driver’s cab of his huge 14,000-pound snowcat when it occurred to him that his nephew was in harm’s way. He jumped out in an effort to save his life.

‘My feet lost their grip on the moving tracks, and I never made it to the cab. I lurched violently forward, out of control,’ he wrote.

‘In that split second I was catapulted off the spinning metal tracks, arms flailing. I arced over the front of the tracks, propelled forward, down on to the hard-packed ice, where my head hit the ground hard and instantly gashed open.

‘There came terrible crunching sounds as 14,000lb of galvanised steel machinery slowly, inexorably, monotonously, ground over my body. It was a horrifying soundtrack.’

Renner suffered 38 broken bones in the ordeal, as well as a collapsed lung and his liver was pierced by one of his broken ribs. 

His nephew was able to render aid until emergency responders arrived to the scene. Renner was airlifted to hospital, where he was kept for more than two weeks and underwent multiple surgeries. 

Despite all odds, Renner has returned to work on set, recently filming Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery – the third instalment of the Knives Out series.

Earlier details had revealed as the plow started barreling toward his nephew, Renner made a quick dash back to the cab and attempted to get back inside while it was moving. It was then that he was pulled beneath it and crushed. 

Just months into his onerous recovery, he bravely said he would go through it ‘all over again’ to save his nephew.

‘I’ve lost a lot of flesh and bone but I have been refueled and refilled with love – and titanium,’ he joked in the aftermath. 

Renner told People that writing the memoir, which is due out on April 29, had been a cathartic experience to ‘go word by word through it all again.’  

‘I don’t not talk about it,’ he said. ‘It’s part of my life every day, and it’s always a wonderful reminder of the strength of the human spirit and how fragile the body is and how badass it is at recovery.’

He also spoke of the torment his nephew, Alex, had experienced by the gruesome sight he witnessed.

‘We listened to the book together, which was pretty intense,’ Renner said.

‘I put images in that kid’s head he cannot unsee… If I get better, then he’ll get bettter… so I’m going to do anything I can to get better.

‘I’m healing him, he heals me. It’s a beautiful thing.’

Despite all the trauma, Renner said he is ‘not haunted by the incident – not too often anyway – by the images, the sounds.’

Instead, he sees the beauty in knowing his strength, power and resilience.

‘I am reminded of my new reality, and it’s wonderfully positive,’ he said. ‘I didn’t die.’