An Oregon man narrowly escaped death when a runaway saw blade whipped through a parking lot and lodged into a building, shocking video shows.
Shane Reimche was entering Quicktrips Neighborhood Market in Eugene on Thursday when the concrete saw broke loose from a nearby construction site.
Surveillance footage obtained by KEZI shows Reimche casually walking into the store. Just seconds later, the nearly 4-foot blade slips through parked cars in the lot, skids across the pavement and slams into the exterior wall of the shop — just inches from the door.
“I put my hand on the door and I heard a loud bang and yelling,” Reimche recalled. “Just as a cloud of smoke pops up and I see a guy fall in the ditch. And a four-foot blade hurtling at me.”
“Last minute I was able to duck behind the counter,” he added.
The impact was so powerful it “shook the whole store,” according to store owner Amit Grewal.
“We were standing behind the counter, all I heard was metal rolling down the street,” he told the outlet. “It was just wind, all of a sudden we heard a loud bang.”
The deadly blade had come loose from a nearby construction site by Northwest Natural Gas and two companies they contracted, Brix Paving Northwest and Integrity Traffic.
A bolt may have come loose or there may have been an operator error as they were fixing a leaky gas valve, a contractor witness told KEZI.
The gas company said in a statement that it was glad that nobody was injured in the bizarre incident, which it blamed on the contractor.
The deep sliver where the blade had lodged itself was still outside the door.
“Oh my god, I had tears all night. It was petrifying. I was shaking in the store,” he told KEZI. “Took a little while before I could talk. That thing was huge. You can see the hole in the wall.”
After the incident, he said he hugged his kids tight as they cried together.
“Obviously it wasn’t my time but probably the closest I’ve ever experienced,” Reimche said.
“I don’t think I would’ve survived being touched by that thing,” he added. “I need a beer. I’m still shaken. It’s 9 o’clock. I’m not going to work today.”
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Patrick Reilly
