Jeremy Renner’s Remarkable Recovery Three Years After Near-Fatal Snow Plow Accident

Jeremy Renner, the 54-year-old actor best known for his role in the Avengers franchise, recently marked a poignant milestone—three years since the snow plow accident that nearly claimed his life. With characteristic humor, Renner shared a photo of the PistenBully snow removal vehicle that ran over him on his Instagram Stories, captioning it simply: “Not today,” accompanied by playful emojis and noting a “rain delay.” This lighthearted acknowledgment of the machine that caused him such trauma reveals the actor’s resilience and ability to find levity even in the darkest chapters of his life. In a follow-up post featuring a child surrounded by snow, he shared a more reflective message: “Happy New Year. A New day. And new pathways filled with Love and adventure”—words that encapsulate his journey of healing and renewed perspective.

The accident that transformed Renner’s life occurred on New Year’s Day 2023 near his Nevada home, when the actor was crushed by a snow-removal vehicle weighing more than 14,330 pounds. What makes the incident all the more heroic is that Renner was attempting to save his young nephew Alex Fries from being struck when the horrific accident occurred. The physical toll was devastating: more than 38 broken bones, including six broken ribs fractured in 14 places, a broken tibia, and a collapsed lung. The severity of these injuries paints a picture of just how close Renner came to losing his life that day. The immediate aftermath saw him rushed to the hospital, beginning what would become a long, painful journey of recovery and rehabilitation that would test his physical and emotional limits in ways he could never have imagined.

In his memoir “My Next Breath,” released in April 2025, Renner provided a raw, unflinching account of his brush with death. His description of those moments on the ice is haunting: “As I lay on the ice, my heart rate slowed, and right there, on that New Year’s Day, unknown to my daughter, my sisters, my friends, my father, my mother, I just got tired.” He recounts the physical strain of manually breathing for approximately thirty minutes, comparing it to “doing 10 or 20 push-ups per minute for half an hour,” before finally succumbing. “That’s when I died,” he writes with startling directness. “I died, right there on the driveway to my house.” These words carry the weight of someone who has truly faced mortality and returned to tell the tale—someone whose perspective on life has been fundamentally altered by dancing so closely with its end.

The decision to write about his traumatic experience wasn’t an easy one for Renner. During an April 2025 appearance on The Jimmy Fallon Show, he admitted his initial reluctance to revisit the accident in writing. “I went through a year and I was doing pretty good. I was walking again. Then the idea of writing the book came around and I was like, ‘Oh, God, I got to relive this thing?’ It was quite the struggle,” he confessed to Fallon. But what began as hesitation evolved into a recognition of the healing power of storytelling—not just for himself, but for everyone impacted by the accident. “It was important for me to get out of my own damn way,” Renner explained. “To relive it, to recount it, to own it in a different way, word by word, was quite healing for me.” He acknowledged that the trauma extended far beyond his own experience, affecting his nephew who witnessed the horrifying scene, and his mother who received the dreaded phone call and drove thirteen hours through a snowstorm to reach her son in the hospital. The memoir became a vehicle for collective healing, allowing those who shared in this life-altering event to process it together.

Prior to the memoir, Renner had already begun sharing details of his accident and recovery journey through various media interviews. In a July 2024 conversation with Men’s Health, he provided vivid recollections of the traumatic experience. “I remember every undulation,” he told the outlet. “I remember my head cracking on the thing and it just pressing on me—it’s exactly like you think it would feel. An immovable object and a crushing force, and something’s gotta give. But thank God my skull didn’t fully give.” These graphic details serve not as gratuitous recounting but as testament to both the severity of what he endured and the miracle of his survival. Throughout his recovery process, Renner has maintained remarkable transparency, allowing fans and the public to witness his vulnerability, setbacks, progress, and triumphs as he fought his way back to health.

Renner’s journey over these three years represents more than just physical recovery—it embodies the human capacity for resilience in the face of catastrophe. From the moment of impact on that icy driveway to his current state of reflection and gratitude, his story traverses the full spectrum of human experience: heroism in his attempt to save his nephew, the fight for survival in those critical early moments, the grueling physical rehabilitation, and finally the emotional and psychological processing that continues to this day. His willingness to share this journey, complete with its darkest moments and brightest revelations, offers a powerful message about perseverance and perspective. As Renner marks this third anniversary with a blend of humor, reflection, and forward-looking optimism, he demonstrates that surviving trauma isn’t just about physical healing but about finding new meaning and “new pathways filled with Love and adventure” on the other side of life’s most challenging moments.