RENO, Nev. – The serious injuries actor Jeremy Renner sustained while using a snow tractor to extricate a snowbound motorist on a private mountain road near Lake Tahoe appear to be a “tragic accident,” the Reno sheriff said Tuesday.
The 51-year-old ‘Avengers’ star was seriously injured when he was run over by his own snow cat after using it to free a vehicle being driven by a family member that was stuck in 3 feet of fresh snow on New New Year’s Day, said Washoe County Sheriff Darin Balaam.
An investigation is ongoing but there was no sign of foul play or signs that Renner was impaired at the time of the incident on Sunday morning, Balaam told reporters.
“At this point in the investigation… we believe there was a tragic accident,” the sheriff said. “He was a great neighbor and he plowed these roads for his neighbors.”
The accident left Renner in critical but stable condition with chest and orthopedic injuries, according to a publicist and sheriff’s officials, who said Renner was about 25 miles (40.23 kilometers) by medical helicopter to a Reno hospital been flown.
Around the same time reporters were gathering with Balaam on Tuesday, Renner released one Instagram photo of himself in a hospital bed and a message missing an apostrophe.
“Thank you all for your kind words,” it said. “I’m too confused to type now. But I send love to you all.”
Balaam said Renner used his snow groomer snow cat, a 7-ton vehicle he owns, to tow another personal vehicle that was snowbound on a private road he shares with neighbors.
“After Mr. Renner successfully towed his personal vehicle from his stuck location, he got out of his (snow cat) to speak with his family member,” Balaam said. “The snow groomer started to roll. Renner tries to climb back into the driver’s seat, and Mr. Renner is run over.”
The sheriff said the snow groomer had been impounded and was being examined by investigators “for mechanical failure and why it started rolling.”
“He was helping someone who was stranded in the snow,” said Reno Mayor Hillary Schieve Reno Gazette-Journal Monday evening. She said she and the actor are friends and that she was called about the accident shortly after the crash near the Mt. Rose Highway, which connects Reno to Lake Tahoe.
“He’s always helping others,” the mayor told the newspaper.
Balaam said Tuesday it took Reno first responders more than 30 minutes to cross the several miles of snow-covered road to reach Renner on the private road off the freeway.
Up to 20 vehicles had been abandoned in the pavement while 3 feet of fresh snow fell overnight, slowing fire engine and ambulance response.
A publicist for Renner said in a statement Monday that he suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopedic injuries and remained in critical but stable condition in intensive care after undergoing surgery at a Reno hospital.
Renner plays Hawkeye, a live-shooting member of the superhero Avengers squad in Marvel’s expansive film and television universe.
Balaam said the two-time acting Oscar nominee became a volunteer deputy sheriff in Reno through his participation in the county’s Shop with the Sheriff program, which raises money for children to shop for Christmas gifts.
“He was very generous throughout the community,” the sheriff said.
Renner received back-to-back Oscar nominations for The Hurt Locker and The Town. His portrayal of a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq in 2009’s The Hurt Locker helped him make a name for himself.
2012’s The Avengers solidified him as part of Marvel’s grand storytelling ambitions, with his character appearing in multiple sequels and earning his own Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
“His popularity among the kids in ‘Marvels’ has had a tremendous impact,” Balaam said Tuesday.
“I can guarantee that the kids he touched during ‘Shop with the Sheriff’ will never forget that moment,” he said. “They call him Hawkeye.”
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Associated Press writer Ken Ritter in Las Vegas contributed to this report.
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