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To be clear, prima facie evidence often prevails to support the notion that if you rear end somebody, it is your fault, but depending upon the liability law in your state, if you cause an accident and are stupid enough to have multiple people witness obvious intent, you can be held up to 100% responsible for it. Even having malfunctioning brake lights is sufficient evidence to reduce the amount of damages you may be entitled to. In Oregon, that's a standard 20-30% fault when it is just the insurance companies involved.
And more food for thought on this issues is that passengers and acquaintances are generally disregarded as witnesses unless there is a jury trial, so don't count on a friend in the car being able to help your case.
And yes, I was very proud to deny that woman every penny. It could have been much worse. She should have gone to jail for assault with a deadly weapon in my opinion, but the cops didn't bother to ask questions because they shared the same wrong-headed attitude about fault. (They aren't looking out for you at all in such circumstances.)
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