Evel Knievel Broke a Lot of Bones before he died

CNN informed me that motorcycle stuntman Evel Knievel died yesterday at age 69. I remember his name from my childhood. My brothers probably had a little action figure of him on his motorcycle draped in the colors of the flag.

I looked Evel Knievel up on wikipedia and discovered, to my amazement, that his stunts were very often not as successful and safe as everyone might have hoped. Over the course of 15 years (1962-1977), as a result of crashing while attempting to jump over numerous vehicles on his motorcyle, his injuries included

- 4 broken arms
- 4 broken legs
- 3 broken collarbones
- 2 broken wrists
- 2 broken hips
- 2 broken pelvises
- several ribs broken twice
- a broken shoulder
- a broken back
- a broken knee
- a broken foot
- both ankles broken at once
- two concussions
- a 29-day-long coma

And that was all on ONE HUMAN BODY! He recovered from many reconstructive surgeries and got back on the bike to break his body all over again, again, again, and again.

Driven? Obsessive? Perseverant? Crazy? A-Type? Risk-lover? Adrenaline junkie? Impressive? High pain threshold? Basically, for me, "does not compute." Because I am generally risk-averse and cautious.