SHOCKING MOMENT A man narrowly escaped death after being nearly cut in half by a saw blade that went out of control, careened through a car park and crashed into a convenience store.

By Alice Wright for Dailymail.Com

23:02 30 March 2024, updated 03:37 31 March 2024

Terrifying footage shows the moment an Oregon man narrowly escaped death by one second when a runaway saw blade hurtled at him across a parking lot.

Shane Reimche walked into Quick Trip Market in Eugene on Thursday, closing the door behind him until the blade lodged in the wall, shaking the entire store.

The four-foot-long blade broke off from a nearby construction site and headed toward Reimsch, picking up speed as it slid between cars parked in the parking lot.

“I mean, obviously it wasn't my time but it was probably the closest I've ever been,” Reimsch said He told ABC News After the terrifying ordeal.

“I was walking into the store here, and I put my hand on the door and I heard a loud noise and screaming here around the corner,” he recalls.

“Just as a cloud of smoke emerges and I see a man fall into the ditch, lunging at me with a four-foot blade.

“At the last minute I was able to crouch down behind the counter,” he explained.

Surveillance footage from inside the store shows Reimich looking into the parking lot, seeing the blade coming toward him and quickly curving to his left behind the store's wall.

Surveillance footage also shows the walls shaking when the blade hit the wall, alarming those inside.

“We were standing behind the counter, and all I heard was the sound of metal rolling in the street,” said Amit Grewa, the store owner who was serving customers at the time.

'[I thought] It was just wind, and suddenly we heard a loud bang. It shook the entire store.

The construction site where the blade escaped was dealing with a leaking gas valve at the intersection of Hilliard Avenue and East 24th Street.

The project was overseen by Northwest Natural Gas and two contractors, Brix Paving Northwest and Integrity Traffic.

“This incident involves a contractor on a NW Natural worksite,” Northwest Natural Gas said in a statement.

'We are reviewing our association with this contractor, and have removed the contractor from other work for us at this time.'

A contractor at the scene, who witnessed the incident, told ABC News that the loose blade may have become loose due to a missing bolt or there may have been possible error on the part of the operator.

I had tears all night. It was terrifying. “I was shaking in the store,” Remesh said the next day.

“It took a while before I could talk. This thing was huge, you could see the hole in the wall.

Adding: “I'm grateful to be here. I was thinking maybe it's my time. I don't think I was going to survive touching this thing.”