quick-lynx-2345/11/2026

Other driver admitted fault ON VIDEO and now his insurance is denying everything — what do we do?

I'm honestly at my wits' end and need some perspective from people who've been through something similar.

My daughter was sitting at a dedicated green arrow last week — the kind where everything else is red, no ambiguity at all. She got her arrow, started her turn, and some guy blew straight through his red and sideswiped her rear quarter panel as she was almost finished clearing the intersection.

Here's the thing: the other driver was actually really cooperative at the scene. He straight-up said "yeah, I ran the light, totally my bad" and they both recorded a little voice memo on her phone right there documenting what happened, with him acknowledging it. She also grabbed photos of both vehicles, the intersection, and the light setup.

Police came out, but since nobody needed an ambulance they basically told them to swap insurance info and handle it civilly. Fine.

Fast forward to this week: his insurance calls her and says they're denying liability. The rep kept throwing around some phrase about how my daughter should have "yielded" even on a protected green. They also claim they have no knowledge of any recorded admission.

I feel like we're being gaslit. The light she was at is 100% a protected signal — when it's green, cross traffic is physically stopped by a red. There's no universe where she had a duty to yield.

Does anyone know:

Can she subpoena the intersection camera footage?
Is the voice memo she recorded actually usable?
At what point do we just get a lawyer involved?

She's 22, first real accident, and this is already stressing her out so much. Any advice from people who've dealt with adjusters pulling this kind of thing would mean a lot.

9 replies

Most helpful first

candid-vole-9995/11/2026
This is such a classic adjuster move and it makes my blood boil every time I hear it. They deny first and hope you go away. The "duty to yield" argument on a fully protected green arrow is basically made up — they're testing whether you know enough to push back. Don't let them pressure her into accepting partial fault. She should stop talking to them entirely and let a lawyer handle all communication going forward.
- brave-fox-6185/11/2026
  I spent years on the inside, and I'll tell you exactly what's happening: the other driver called his insurance, changed his story, and the adjuster has no incentive to dig deeper unless they're forced to. The voice memo is potentially huge. Depending on your state's laws around consent for recordings, it could be fully admissible. The thing they don't want is for you to actually get an attorney involved, because then they have to deal with someone who knows the game.
  
  Also — get on requesting that intersection footage immediately. City traffic camera footage is often overwritten within 2-4 weeks. If you wait, it's gone forever.
hearty-hare-8575/11/2026
The intersection camera thing is urgent. Your daughter (or an attorney on her behalf) can send a formal preservation letter to the city or county traffic department requesting that footage be held. It doesn't always work but it puts them on notice. Same goes for any nearby businesses that might have exterior cameras facing the road — a lot of personal injury cases have been won on random gas station footage. The voice memo should absolutely be preserved and backed up in multiple places right now.
bold-vole-9515/11/2026
Almost identical thing happened to me a couple years ago. Guy rear-ended me and told the cop he was sorry, it was his fault. By the time his insurance called me he was claiming I "brake-checked" him. I was so naive — I kept thinking the truth would just sort itself out. It doesn't. Get a lawyer. Seriously. Most PI attorneys do free consultations and work on contingency so it costs nothing upfront.
- quiet-tern-1185/11/2026
  Not legal advice, but from a practical standpoint: a recorded verbal admission is meaningful, and the physical geometry of a protected signal intersection is often provable through traffic engineering records (signal timing logs, phase data, etc.). Those records can be requested too. The "last clear chance" doctrine your daughter is being hit with is a real legal concept but it's being misapplied here based on what you're describing. Worth getting at least a free consult so someone can actually look at the facts.
- gentle-badger-1745/11/2026
  Three things, in order: (1) Stop having your daughter talk to the other driver's insurance — full stop. Every word she says can be twisted. (2) Get that voice memo uploaded to cloud backup today. (3) Call at least two or three PI attorneys this week for free consultations. You're not obligated to hire anyone, but you need someone in your corner who does this for a living. The other insurance company is not her friend, full stop.
calm-dove-2235/11/2026
Also just want to gently flag — is your daughter doing okay physically? Sometimes the adrenaline from an accident masks soreness that shows up 48-72 hours later. If she develops any neck stiffness, headaches, or back pain in the next few days, please have her see a doctor and make sure it gets documented. I've seen so many people brush off symptoms and then struggle to connect them to the accident later.
candid-swan-3425/11/2026
Ugh, I'm so sorry she's going through this. She did everything right — took photos, got the admission recorded, filed properly — and this is what she gets? The system is so broken sometimes. Sending you both good thoughts. Please update us when things move forward.
tidy-tern-8775/11/2026
A few questions just so I understand the full picture: Was the voice memo recorded with the other driver's knowledge, or did she do it without him realizing? That might matter depending on where you live. Also, has she filed a claim through her own insurance yet? Sometimes your own carrier will go to bat for you and subrogate against the other driver's insurance — takes some of the burden off her directly.