Well, this is as close as I've come, the T-Bone I mentioned in my last post.
I roll up to a red light at a large city intersection, and get into the right turn lane and stop. The street I'm on has 2 lanes each way for straight through traffic, a left turn lane and the right turn lane I occupy. The cross street is IIRC, 3 lanes, traffic is moderate but fast, 50-60 mph. No obvious gap coming to get into, so I roll forward partway into the crosswalk, with the bike still in gear.
That's when it got exciting.
I hear a huge KA-WHANG from my left.
I look to my left. There are two 'visual snapshots' still burned into my long-term memory...
Snapshot #1: The car that made the huge KA-WHANG is jumping off of the corner sidewalk. Right front fender is shredded, and the right front wheel has about 60 degrees of toe-out. Ma Duffer is at the wheel, and Pa Duffer is a helpless passenger (actually they
both were...). A quick mental calculation of the trajectory predicts that the car will slide right in front of me.
NOT...
Snapshot #2: The aforementioned car is sliding through the crosswalk, and I see four eyes the size of dinner plates on Ma & Pa Duffer. The c0ckeyed right front wheel is steering the car
my direction. Another quick mental calculation of the trajectory predicts that the car is locked on target, and
I'm it.
I have enough time to say "Oh
SH!T!" and realize that I'm gonna get hammered unless I run for it. I drop the clutch, swing my left leg up over the tank as the bike rolls forward a little, and sprint about three steps before I hear the WHUMP as the car drills my poor scooter :'(, and then a CLANK an the car stuffs into the curb.
I turn around to survey the scene, and see my bent bike laying in the bushes in front of the corner burger shop. Ma & Pa Duffer are sitting stunned in the car, still looking straight ahead. Several folks are hotfooting it out of the burger shop to see if everyone is alright. They ask me if i'm alright, and I answer "Yes, but you better look at
them." A few comments of surprise that I escaped without a scratch. An ambulance arrives, and hauls the apparently uninjured Ma & Pa Duffer away. One of the paramedics comments "Usually in a car vs. cycle accident, we're hauling the rider away...". One of the witnesses from the burger shop says they hit my bike while it was still upright.......
With the bike in gear like it was, I could have jumped forward 6 feet or so, and maybe gotten away scott free. Or maybe gotten clipped as I launched, entering the cross traffic out of control. I'll never know. I didn't even think of it at the time. All I thought was RUN!
Never found out why Ma & Pa Duffer ended up half on the sidewalk, clipping a no parking sign and then the lightpost that folded the wheel back.