Motorcyclist was clearly at fault in this one.

I had the misfortune to be hit by a truck (truck at fault) about 16 months ago. Let me now extol the virtues of helmet, jacket with body armor, heavy boots, and gloves -- as well as some highly useful MSF training.

When the truck made the illegal turn and cut me off, I knew I was going down one way or another, so my best hope was a controlled crash. I countersteered to avoid immediate impact and hit the brakes to scrub off speed, knowing that I'd probably flip the bike doing it. And when I got that zero gravity feeling that the bike was about to highside, I pushed hard on the pegs and bailed out. I went into the pavement right shoulder first, shattering my upper right arm from shoulder to elbow. I also broke two ribs, sprained my thumb, and cracked a cervical vertebra. But I literally did walk away. I'm just now to where I can do pullups again in the gym, but it took a lot of PT to get there.

The bike did about three somersaults down the highway. Fortunately, it ruptured a fuel line, ran out of gas, and quit running, since lying on its side it was still going. And had it continued to run, the engine bearings would have been trashed for lack of oil. I had to get the dents taken out of the tank, replace the front brake setup, replace a bent triple-tree, have a fork rebuilt, and replace a trashed exhaust pipe. But it's now back on the road and I feel comfortable riding it again. Let us now praise the durability of old Norton Commando's.

The kid in the truck was a rider on his mother's insurance policy, and she didn't put more than $30K of liability on him, so effectively he was an uninsured motorist and it was my insurance that picked up about $200,000 of medical bills.

Good kid... He stopped when he realized how badly he'd screwed up. But I have a few bones to pick with his mother for putting a teenager (and new driver) behind the wheel of a giant dually he was utterly unable to control -- and then didn't insure him adequately. So much for responsible parenting...