I mean it wasn't that long ago (maybe 2008 or 2009?) that the Aussie Jr National Team signed up in my 3 field at Fitchburg and raked us over the coals. It wasn't more than 5 or 6 years ago when 100+ person fields were pretty normal in this area. I think I've seen two crashes in the p/1/2 fields this year and they were both single person slide outs that everyone else safely avoided, and the riders were fine aside from some road rash. Last year I saw a dude have enough spokes ripped out of his front wheel for it to be slapping against his fork and bouncing him around, and he was pissed because there were like 5 miles to go, but he didn't go down. A couple of weeks ago I watched a dude unclip his right foot at 30mph and sit sideways on his saddle so he could lean the bike over far enough to adjust his rear derailleur, and nobody died.
Could it be, maybe, that you have some rose tinted glasses going on?