Never, ever, ever, ever, ever admit fault at the scene of an accident.
Never. Ever.
Look, you might know you were responsible. You went for that sweet lane merge and didn’t check your blind spot because dammit, you needed to be in that lane and CRASH. However, the moment you get out of the car to swap info the only things you need to say are:
“Are you or anyone else hurt?”
“Should we call the police or a tow company?”
“Can I please get your name, address, phone number, and registration number for insurance purposes?”
That’s it. It might sound mechanical or even uncaring, but that’s all you really need to do.
See you might feel guilty, but when you didn’t check your blind spot, you didn’t see that vehicle also moving into the same lane. In fact, what we’ll find through the assessment process and the settlement and car accident recovery process is that the both of you were merging into the same spot without looking, and impacted A 50/50 split on liability or an Each Bear Own claim due to neither of you being fully established in the lane.
The moment you say “Oh I’m so sorry, this is all my fault,” your insurer’s job becomes that much harder to get that equitable split. Settlement and Recovery teams live for a Third Party claiming fault at the scene of an accident because it makes driving the outcome in our favor that much easier.
You, average Joe Citizen, you know how to drive, you know the road rules, but you don’t know how to establish fault in a civil case. The Police know how to establish criminal fault. While that often coincides with how the insurer would find fault, sometimes after enough questioning of how the accident happened we may find that from a civil background fault lies elsewhere.
Your insurance claims officer, or settlement and recoveries officer most often do, and we’ll do our damned best to make sure you don’t pay an excess/deductible if you don’t have to.
If you’ve had to, either because liability was unclear (see the above), or information comes to light where an original fault assessment is changed due to the actions of the third party and we can waive your excess, we’re gonna get it back to you.
I’ve had this conversation hundreds of times on both sides. (Where I used to work the claims agent had the agency to determine liability, and correct adjudication based on the accident description was a key KPI). Many more working in Set & Rec. The third party says they’re at fault when in actuality the insured was at fault. Or vice-versa. It makes for a fun and argumentative conversations.
Save yourself the hassle, and just do what’s outlined in most automotive general insurance policies:
If involved in an accident, under no circumstances must you admit any fault or liability as this may affect our ability to assist you in the case of a claim?

A car accident recovery company chicago more often than not is shocking, if not traumatic. To assume that everyone involved, no matter how big or small the incident, is capable of critical thinking, or a robust enough knowledge of the road rules at the time immediately following the incident to understand how much liability they hold is a bit of a stretch. Funnily enough, people in general love binary outcomes. They’re neat, they make sense, they’re easy to understand. You may hold some, but not all responsibility, far from binary, and let's face it, John and Jane Q Driver are not knowledgeable enough to work that out immediately after impact. So why force or expect a binary response to a nuanced situation?
Secondly, from experience, for every person who attempts to lie their way out of liability in an accident, there are 3 more who would willingly bully and abuse you into accepting liability at the scene. Just because that person feels they have the moral or legal high ground doesn’t necessarily make it so, no matter how aggressively they make the point. Why allow yourself to accept liability when guilted or forced into accepting it for something you may not be liable for?
You can still maintain your morals, provide assistance at the scene, and provide information to the third party to make the process easier for them without accepting liability at the scene. This does not mean you do not have to accept liability later with your insurer. Your insurer will act and is bound to act in your best interests, be it accepting no, some, or all liability.