Complete B.S. There are some great steel bikes out there that are both strong and light. They are not, however, cheap.

Here's the deal with carbon in a crash as opposed to Aluminum, Steel, or Ti. It can fail in a pretty catastrophic manner. It might end up in 2-4 pieces. The AL, steel, or Ti bike that you put through the same crash would be dented and if not unridable at least undesirable. Overall, the frame material is kind of a 'drop out' on the design process. It's not even close to important as some people make it out to be. You can get great bikes made from any number of materials.

You've got enough money to buy a nice bike and enough time riding to deserve something nice. Check out the search function to see a listing of nice bikes. We've had a couple of steel threads lately you can check out if that's what floats your boat.