An Oregon man narrowly escaped death by avoiding a runaway saw blade that rolled from a nearby construction site and barreled toward him.
Shane Reimche was entering a store in Eugene when the blade charged behind him, according to ABC affiliate KEZI-TV.
Surveillance video obtained by the outlet shows the blade spinning toward Reimche seconds after he entered the store.
“I was walking into the store here, I put my hand on the door and I heard a loud bang and yelling,” Reimche tells KEZI. “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.
In a statement obtained by the TV station, a communications director from Northwest Natural Gas, the company that hired the contractor, said it was a very unusual incident and the company is glad no one got hurt.
“This incident involved a contractor at a NW Natural job site,” the statement continued. “We are reviewing our association with this contractor, and we have removed the contractor from other work for us for now.”
Representatives from the contractor, Brix Paving Northwest and Integrity Traffic, insist they were not working in Eugene on the day of the incident and were not responsible for the runaway saw blade.