Bill,  I heed the saying as a warning, but not quite as an actual fact.  In fact, I don't plan to crash either.   I do plan/hope to be prepared in case it happens though.  (I added 'hope' because at times, I do not wear ATGATT)

Fact:  My Dad never crashed.  And never will.  So I know it can be possible.  He was not a full time rider, but neither am I.

I'm glad to hear that you and your family have never been down Bill. I truly hope that is the case for the rest of your lives. I never took a course either, learned street riding by tagging along with a bunch of friends when I was younger.

I always lived/rode in heavily populated and congested areas. NYC up until 10 years ago when I moved to N.J. There's something about N.J. drivers, they don't know what merge is, and they're notoriously selfish and inconsiderate. I stopped counting the bike accidents/deaths in the local papers a few weeks ago, seemed like there was one a day for a while. N.Y.C. was a bit different, and I actually felt safer riding there. Here at the Jersey Shore it's about p.o'd tourists and locals wanting to get where they need to go. The roads were not built to accommodate the growing population. Everyone seems angry.

I guess our environment has a lot to do with it. I get cut-off on a pretty regular basis where I ride. Darn, just the other day I was sitting at a light in a left-only turn lane and a very old woman starts pulling in "ALONG SIDE" me! I'm SITTING at a light. I actually yelled at her instead of hitting the horn because her window was open and she was inches from me, just pulling in from the right lane like I wasn't even there. I have to maintain vigilance here.

We "ride safe" but we're no competition for a driver on their cell phone running a light with screaming kids in the back seat.

Check out the reader comments following this story of a biker killed yesterday in my area: http://app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080712/NEWS/80712018 to get an idea of how some people view us. Reading the story, it would seem that the biker was at fault, but we won't know until they finish the investigation. Regardless, some of the comments say it all.