Well, this didnt happen to me but i thought i would share it to you.

During the Summer of 2003 i went on a Tour of Europe with a bunch of kids my age (we were lead by two college aged kids). There was also a group of kids a few years younger then us that started the trip 50 miles ahead of us. We were touring Europe - London to Rome through Paris and Montreux (Switzerland) and were on Touring bikes with Panniers on the back. Around the 2/3 completion of the trip mark, we were in Switzerland and were on our shortest day of riding - only about 30 miles (we typically rode 60 - 90 miles a day) but that was because we were riding through the Nuefenen (sp?) Pass with its 24 Switch backs or so. The day before we started our ascent, the younger group of kids went through and told us of what happened to one of their kids.

On the way down the other side, this kid was riding 2nd to last (one of the leaders was bringing up the rear) when a motorcycle (these details are a little sketchy as to what exactly happened) cut him off. There are of course no barriers on the edge of the road but at this point there were little white blocks/poles for some reason. Needless to say, his panniers hit one of these poles and he crashed - doing a somersault and all. He ended up being airlifted out of the place, and was immediately put on a morphine-drip. He suffered serious road rash on his back/ass and was in a lot of pain. He was flown home a day or two later where he had an American doctor check him out. This doctor found something the Swiss had missed out - the kid had fractured his back in 12 places!

There were two more crashes after this one ... one happed 5 days from the end and no one is sure how she crashed, but she ended up breaking her elbow but road around in a car with the photographer for the rest of the trip. Then one of the leaders of the other group crashed on the last day of riding! and suffered a concussion. Most people on the trip fell too - mostly while stationary as it took a while to get used to all the added weight on the back of our bikes. As for me, i've only crashed once, going uphill of all things (have no idea how i did it since it was an open road) and couldnt sleep on my right side for a few weeks. The palm of my hand was swollen for a few days, and i can now crack my wrist when i turn it to the inside. Luckily, i was wearing long sleeves that day so only had carpet-burn type of thing of my elbow.