WHAT'S THE DAMAGE?

The salvage repair business is thriving, giving previously written-off cars a second wind. But is it safe and are rules being broken?

- John Evans

From trash to cash!', 'Soo cheap!', '£300 gamble no keys!'... Hyperbole is alive and kicking on the popular videos posted by salvage repairers on YouTube. There are lots of them, most fronted by excitable chaps with a gift for social media supported by a grizzled 'character' who actually does the work. They must be profitable. One boasts of having just bought his dream house on the spoils. Most present repairing crashed cars as a bit of a laugh.

Except that it isn't. Ten years ago, Sadie McGrady, aged six, was killed in a two-vehicle car crash. The inquest heard how the Vauxhall Corsa she was travelling in had been written off by insurers after an accident in 2008. It had then been sold to a salvage company, repaired and returned to the road. The vehicle examiner who gave evidence at the inquest said the repair had "weakened" the structure of the car, causing greater intrusion and, he added, "increasing the likelihood of Sadie sustaining injury". The coroner said: "If it is beyond economic repair, in my view that should be the end of the vehicle.

I can only hope that someone, somewhere will listen."