Definitely it's best to be where the accidents are not, but if we think we have special skills that mean trouble always happens only to other people, we kid ourselves.
I've only been knocked off once, in broad daylight by a driver turning right out of a side street. I was wearing a bright red jacket which would have stood out well against grey buildings. The driver didn't look or didn't see. I had a fraction of a second's notice that the car was going to pull out and I was going to get hit. I could do nothing about it. I wasn't harmed so was lucky but I can't credit that to anything more than luck.
There are drivers who, at a critical moment, are not looking because they have fallen asleep, are texting, drunk, distracted, not expecting to see a bike, whatever, and if one of those is comes towards you, you are not in control!
Agreed, but here's the sensitive bit. Everyone (OK not everyone) is a perfect driver, cyclist, whatever. They've been driving/cycling for years so they are GOOD. You really can't criticise people's driving/cycling (I'm lumping them together although I would say that as a group, cyclists are more aware of shortcomings) and precious few people take additional training to improve. Because, after all, you can't teach me anything useful can you? Whereas the truth is that any training that could help is worth doing.
Anyone that argues with me, and is in London, just answer: have you ever taken up the option of free 1:1 road training through TfL? (OK, OK, some here are trainers, I know. I also know they won't be arguing) Answer is almost certainly "no, because I'm not going to learn anything/I've been cycling to long/I haven't got time". Yeah, well.
You often hear drivers/cyclists say "there was nothing I could have done about it" and sometimes that may be the case. Other times, it most definitely isn't, but arguing against that begins to sound like victim blaming, which I'm really not.