I'm really not sure the take the lane advice would have worked. First of all, I'm 6' tall on a mountain bike. Second, the road was completely empty when the incident happened, no other cars and as flat as a board. How could they not have seen me?
It reminds me of a year or so ago a woman plowed into a cattle trailer that had stopped in the road waiting to turn. It killed her instantly. She never even hit the brakes.