Jeremy Renner has blamed a "slip of the mind" moment for causing his horrific snow plough accident and changing his life "forever"

In his new book 'My Next Breath: A Memoir', the actor wrote: "I didn't engage the parking brake or disengage the steel 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."

He added of what happened next: "My feet lost their grip on the moving tracks, and I never made it to the cab. I lurched violently forward, out of control.

"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."

The 'Mayor of Kingstown' actor broke 38 bones in his body after being crushed by the snowplough and though he still experiences lingering discomfort, he doesn't mind because it is "awesome" just to be alive and have made significant strides in his recovery.

He told People magazine: "My swollen ankles, my back that keeps going out or my jaw that just can't seem to bite down right, it's a great reminder of an attitude that got me to here in the first place.

"It's awesome. This is why I can't have a bad day. I know what a bad day feels like."

Jeremy had his chest and leg reconstructed with titanium but airport staff know to turn off metal-detectors in his presence so as not to set off alarms when travelling through security.

He said: "[They know to] switch the buttons on [the machines], so it doesn't go off like 4th of July. I'm not an airport person, but I don't seem to have too many problems. They're pretty in on the joke [if the alarms go off] which is kind of nice."