Actor Jeremy Renner was helping stranded car when hurt, says mayor
Renner was run over by his own vehicle, as US Correspondent Robert Moore reports
Actor Jeremy Renner was helping a stranded motorist when he was injured over the weekend in a snow-plough accident in the mountains, according to the city of Reno’s mayor.
Hillary Schieve said the 51-year-old Avengers star was trying to help a stranded car outside his home on the side of a snowy mountain on New Year's Day when he was run over by his own vehicle.
It comes as Mr Renner thanked fans for their “kind words” in a social media post from his hospital - after the accident left him in critical but stable condition with chest and orthopaedic injuries.
The 51-year-old said he was “too messed up to type” as he shared a picture on his official Instagram page.
“Thank you all for your kind words. I’m too messed up now to type. But I send love to you all,” he wrote.
“He was helping someone stranded in the snow,” Mr Schieve told the Reno Gazette-Journal on Monday night.
She said she and the actor are friends and that she was called about the accident shortly after it happened on Sunday morning near the Mt. Rose Highway that connects Reno to Lake Tahoe.
“He is always helping others,” she told the newspaper.
The Washoe County sheriff's office said in a statement on Sunday that deputies responded to a report of a traumatic injury in the area of the Mt. Rose Highway at about 9 am on Sunday before Mr Renner was flown by helicopter to a hospital.
Last month, Mr Renner uploaded an image to social media of a car buried in snow in Lake Tahoe, in the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where he is said to own a ranch.
A powerful winter storm dumped more than 2 feet (0.6 metres) of snow on the area on Saturday night into Sunday morning.
The sheriff's office said at the time Renner was the “only involved party in the incident” and that the office's major accident investigation team was “looking into the circumstances of the incident.”
Sheriff Darin Balaam scheduled a news conference later on Tuesday “to clarify details regarding" the sheriff's office's response to the accident, the office said in a statement early on Tuesday.
A publicist for Mr Renner said in a statement on Monday that he suffered blunt chest trauma and orthopaedic injuries and remained in critical but stable condition in an intensive care unit following surgery at a Reno hospital.
Mr Renner plays Hawkeye, a sharp-shooting member of the superhero Avengers squad in Marvel’s sprawling movie and television universe.
He is a two-time acting Oscar nominee, scoring back-to-back nods for The Hurt Locker and The Town.
Mr Renner’s portrayal of a bomb disposal specialist in Iraq in 2009′s The Hurt Locker helped turn him into a household name.
The Avengers in 2012 cemented him as part of Marvel’s grand storytelling ambitions, with his character appearing in several sequels and getting its own Disney+ series, Hawkeye.
Want a quick and expert briefing on the biggest news stories? Listen to our latest podcasts to find out What You Need To Know.