Jeremy Renner Reveals All About Snowplow Accident – ‘Horrible Way To Die’

The Hollywood star Jeremy Renner, who is best known for playing Hawkeye in the Marvel movies, was nearly killed on New Year’s Day in a horrifying snowplow accident.

In a new interview, the 52 year-old Renner is opening up about this incident, revealing that his injuries were so severe that he penned a goodbye letter to his family in the hospital, thinking that he was about to die.

‘Would Have Been A Horrible Way To Die’

Renner was using a snowcat to try and help his nephew Alexander Fries get his vehicle out of a snowbank near his home in Lake Tahoe when things took a horrifying turn, and the actor ended up being crushed by the seven-ton snowplow.

In an interview with Diane Sawyer that is set to air on ABC on Thursday night, Renner credited his nephew with saving his life.

“If I was there on my own, that would have been a horrible way to die. And surely I would have. Surely,” he said as he became emotional. “But I wasn’t alone. It was my nephew. Sweet Alex. And the rest of the calvary came.”

Daily Mail reported that Renner was airlifted to a hospital in Reno, Nevada, where it was revealed that he suffered 30 broken bones, a collapsed lung and had his liver pierced by a shattered rib. The injuries were so severe that Renner was sure that he would die.

“So I’m writing down notes on my phone, and last words to my family,” he recalled with tears in his eyes. He trailed off from there, offering a shaky “Sorry” to Sawyer before the interview could continue.

Related: Jeremy Renner Cries In First TV Interview Since Nearly Being Killed In Snowcat Accident – ‘I Chose To Survive’

Renner ‘Would Do It Again’

In a previous excerpt of the interview, Renner told Sawyer that he was “awake through all of it.” He also said that he has no regrets about getting crushed by the snowcat because his nephew had been about to get hit by it. 

“I would do it again,” Renner told Sawyer, who was visibly shocked by this. “It was coming right at my nephew. I would do it again.”

“I chose to survive, this is not going to kill me,” he added. “You’re not going to kill me. No way.”

Related: Jeremy Renner Was Trying To Save Nephew’s Life When 14,000Ib Snowplow Crushed Him

May Take Years For Renner To Recover

Friends of Renner have previously said that it may take him years to fully recover from this.

“It’s much worse than anyone knows. Jeremy is very aware of the fact that he almost died out there,” a friend of his told RadarOnline back in January. “The right side of Jeremy’s chest was crushed, and his upper torso had collapsed. He also had a bad head wound that was bleeding and a leg injury.”

“Jeremy was in a lot of pain, and was having difficulty breathing,” the insider continued. “He knew he was in bad shape and that he might not make it out of this.”

Renner is clearly still on a long road to recovery, but we’re glad to see that he’s well enough to be doing interviews about this terrifying ordeal. Find out more about what happened to him when “Jeremy Renner, The Diane Sawyer Interview: A Story of Terror, Survival and Triumph” premieres on ABC tomorrow night at 10pm.