Bad day on the Dragon that's for sure, I am glad he came out of it safely, and has the photos for his posterity. As for "Monday morning quarterbacking," I haven't seen a great deal here on this forum, or in this thread, just some people get their proverbial panties in a twist because someone else posted an opinion they didn't agree with. It is the internet, and it is a forum, so what else is expected. Many who play on the internet discern their ability by their post count as opposed to their actual experience. :
Accidents rarely occur because a person intended them to, because that is what people in the Accident Reconstruction business would call "Gross Negligence," and then its not an accident.
We all make decisions regarding where we ride, how we ride, how we train, what bikes we use, what farkels we employ and how they affect our bikes, and those decisions all encompass compromises. Combine those experiences, decisions, and compromises with environmental circumstances, and you have your recipe. What comes out the other side, whether it is success or disaster is directly proportionate to the choices that led up to the event. At that moment, when the event happens, a split section decision may or may not mitigate the outcome. Then there are those times, when no matter how well you have prepared, an unforeseen variable goes into the equation and that's Murphy. The best anybody can do is to try to mitigate a many of the variables that they can to give themselves the highest probability of success.
Every time we ride our bikes, we have to win the battle, the pavement only has to win once, and the pavement has a minion of variables.