Comedian and television personality Jay Leno has revealed that he sustained multiple injuries in a motorcycle accident in mid-January.
The accident came after Leno was hospitalized last November after a fire broke out in a car he was working on, burning his face and hands.
In an interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal published Thursday, Leno said he fractured his collarbone and two ribs and fractured both his kneecaps after being knocked off his motorcycle in a somewhat bizarre accident.
Leno said he was riding a 1940 Indian when he noticed the smell of gasoline. Then he turned down a side street and tried to cross a parking lot with a wire stretched across it. Without hanging a warning from it like a flag, Leno said he didn’t see the wire until it was too late. He drove straight into it and was thrown to the ground. He also said the motorcycle continued to move after he was struck down.
Leno said he had not previously mentioned the motorcycle accident because his previous burn injury was widely reported.
“You know, after you get burned, you get that for free,” Leno said in his interview with the Las Vegas Review Journal. “After that, you’re Harrison Ford crashing planes. You just want to keep your head down.”
The burn injury was caused when Leno was sprayed with fuel while working on a 1907 white steam car in his garage. A pilot light started the fire and Leno suffered several third-degree burns as a result.
Despite the recent injury, the 72-year-old said he was “okay” and will “go to work this weekend”.