Coming home from work im cruising down the road behind this guy whos pacing the car next to him. Its starting to rain a little when we come to an intersection. We are aout 150 feet away from the light doing 45 when it turns yellow. He slams on the brakes sliding into the intersection about 20 ft. Well it took me by suprise obviously. So I hit the brakes too. Immediately the front locks so I let go and hit the rears more it locks and I turn sideways instantly. I didnt have time to think so I somehow maneuvered the slide into the right hand turn off lane and came to a halt upright!
I considered getting off the bike and pulling the guy out of the car for being such a jackass but I was thankful for not have hit him or laid the bike down.
I do have a nice flat spot on the rear now.
Wow... isn't it amazing when your body just takes over for your brain and eeks out a safe ending? As I see it though, it's like playing with a tiger. If the tiger swats at you or takes a chunk of your flesh, it's not the tiger's fault- it's the tiger's nature. Ditto with BDC's (Brain Dead Cagers), there's more of them than there are of us. They are the norm and their stupid antics must be predicted, no matter how unpredictable, or it is us who have failed.
Sounds to me like you assumed the driver wasn't going to slam on his brake at a moment that was obviously too late to stop for the light. Just out of curiosity, do any intersections around there have red light cameras? You REALLY need to watch your following distance around RLC's. People will do anything they can not to run those, safety be damned.
Anyway, whether out in the middle of a farm country road or a yellow light in the heart of the city, you should always assume somebody might slam on their brakes and come to a complete stop. Granted, random panic stops for no reason don't happen frequently enough for you to seriously always expect it, but in my experience, it happens just enough that anyone who doesn't expect it ain't gonna be riding for too long.
Glad you kept the shiny side up. If you're interested, I'm working on a series of Advanced Art of Riding pamphlets and would be happy to get your input on them. Intersections and dangerous assumptions are two of the topics to be covered.