Posted on 01/27/2023 6:20:25 AM PST by george76
Months after suffering third-degree burns in a fire that erupted while working on one of his antique cars, Jay Leno was injured in a mishap.
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Leno broke several bones in a motorcycle crash last week.
The comedian was speaking by phone with a reporter, telling him that he was “knocked off my motorcycle. So I’ve got a broken collarbone. I’ve got two broken ribs. I’ve got two cracked kneecaps.”
“So I turned down a side street and cut through a parking lot, and unbeknownst to me, some guy had a wire strung across the parking lot but with no flag hanging from it,” Leno told the newspaper. “So, you know, I didn’t see it until it was too late. It just clothesline me and, boom, knocked me off the bike.”
He said he didn’t say anything about the crash that happened on Jan. 17 because of the media coverage he received surrounding his burns.
“You know, after getting burned up, you get that one for free,” Leno said. “After that, you’re Harrison Ford, crashing airplanes. You just want to keep your head down (laughs).”
Ford has had several airplane mishaps: one in 2020 when he had to do a touch-and-go landing after being told to hold his position, another in 2017 when he landed on a taxiway, still another in 2015 when he crashed a World War II-era training plane onto a golf course, in 2000 when his plane was blown from the runway by wind and finally in 1999 when he had to make an emergency landing in a dry riverbed, The New York Times reported.
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Leno had been scheduled to return to the Las Vegas Strip in March and said that he was OK and was scheduled to perform this weekend.
The comedian was working on a 1907 White Motor Co. steam-powered car when he found the fuel line clogged. He told a friend who he was working with to blow air through the line and gas rained down on his face. The car’s pilot light flickered and caught his face on fire
It doesn’t sound like Leno is blaming anyone, he’s just saying what happened. I’m as old as Jay and still ride fast motorcycles often and my road bicycle 2500 miles a year. I fell off both a few times over the years and I expect to again. Stuff happens. These things don’t stand up by themselves.
For a Hollywood multi-millionaire, Leno is as down to earth as you could wish.
I guess if you don’t care about being laid up and not being able to do normal daily activities, then take those kinds of risks.
It is also okay if you don’t care if the risk takes your life, you were free as a bird doing what you wanted. Of course unless you hurt someone else.
Common sense tells you that you are not 25 anymore. I am 70 and I will be careful because I have seen personally how a broken hip can take a person down. It isn’t worth a silly risk of putting you in a nursing home where they send you for rehab now.
Riding a bike is great until it’s not.
Lol! I touched my toes, with my face, when I fell 2 1/2 stories off a roof. Landed so hard i crumpled and my face smashed the ground and my foot. I’ve not tried it since lol.
Not a good idea in a car, let alone on a motorcycle!
Ditto that!;-)
If nothing else, Jay needs to be more careful.
Dave Edmunds:
Crawling from the wreckage
Crawling from the wreckage
You’d think by now my body and my brain
would get the message
Crawling from the wreckage
Crawling from the wreckage
Into a brand new car
(Or, motorcycle. Touring NBC Burbank in 08
or so the guide pointed out “Jay Leno’s motorcycle”)
Anybody else see a bony finger tapping on his shoulder?
Yep. After I crashed the mountain bike and broke my leg, I did my rehab in a nursing home. That was weird.
It's like any sport, you have to be careful and work around the risks.
But if you quit taking any chances, you will die inside.
BTW, I also just bought a dual sport motorcycle last summer (Honda CRF300L Rally). I ride dirt roads and trails in the county where I live. Just like mountain biking, I assess the risks and plan ahead.
Same for rock climbing (I like it but no place to climb nearby). You have to assess the risks and plan your action accordingly.
Bottom line: just because you're old doesn't mean you have to stop doing things.
I do agree that if my balance were to go or if I had some ailment that robbed me of strength, I would cease and desist. But until then, I plan to keep doing this stuff.
BTW, doing things that require balance is what keeps your sense of balance sharp.
He should never have let Stevie Wonder drive!
Nor believed in “balloon ball”.
"That ain't funny, man. Stevie Wonder's a musical genius!"
Then there was the Mr.T stunt...
What is the purpose of gas in steam powered cars.
Broke three ribs and punctured a lung.
I was scared of the bike for a couple of years after that.
That said, my accident wasn't due to age, it was due to bad thinking.
I have since changed by thinking. I still take spills--took one last week--but they are always my fault and they only hurt my ego.
I also road bike with a bunch of 70+ guys and gals. You would never know they are old if they didn't tell you. A couple of them had heart attacks years ago...which is why they got into biking. Biking cured their heart problems.
That is what I thought. Most likely the lot is situated in a place that makes this common. Enter lawyers at left.
If you plant a land mine on your private property and a person trespasses and blows his legs off, it’s your fault (or at least a lawyer can make a good case that it’s your fault).
The issue with running a cable across a “driveway” is that it has to be “marked” with either flags or a hanging sign. Otherwise it is not visible. And, at least in my area, this applies to private ways as well. YMMV.
That said, when I was riding...”cut throughs” were always more concerning than just pulling out onto a road because pedestrians and other traffic were not “expecting” you to pop out there.
How much time are you really saving anyway?
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