Some of the unfit vehicles on the State register make it back on the roads, writes Simon Carswell
Eamon Fagan's 16-year-old son Emmett was killed on January 1st, 1997, when the car he was driving went off the road just four miles from his home near Ballyjamesduff, Co Cavan.
Last April, the High Court heard that the car, a second-hand 1995-registered Audi, had been involved in another serious accident the year before Eamon Fagan bought the vehicle.
After that accident, the car was deemed a "write-off" by a major insurance company, but a garage bought the vehicle, repaired it and sold it to Eamon Fagan for £26,450. Mr Fagan settled an action for damages against the garage in April after it accepted liability for selling him a defective car.
The Road Safety Authority (RSA) said yesterday it was investigating a potential issue with total write-offs. The issue centres on claims that cars classed by a major insurer as total write-offs and unfit to drive again following accidents have - like Mr Fagan's Audi - been put back on the road.
A spokeswoman for the Department of Transport, which holds the State's vehicle register, the National Vehicle File (NVF), said it had also been made aware of the issue and was examining the matter with the RSA, the Revenue Commissioners and the Garda.
The investigation has been launched on the back of a report by a private company, Cartell.ie, whose website allows prospective car buyers to vet the history of a second-hand car before they purchase it. Cartell has access to the NVF, which allows it to run its website.
While conducting research earlier this year, Cartell discovered discrepancies between the records on total write-off vehicles held on the State vehicle register, the NVF in the department and a sample of records held by one of the country's largest motor insurers.
The insurer had earlier this year provided Cartell with a sample of 5,430 vehicles that were classed as total write-offs on its files and unfit to be driven again.
Cartell cross-checked these vehicles with the NVF and found that 125 vehicles had been re-taxed since being written off and most of these had had a change of ownership. Almost 100 vehicles in the sample had passed the NCT since being written off, according to Cartell's report, which was forwarded to the RSA.
There are concerns that the number of total write-offs put back on the road could be far higher, given that Cartell's report is based on a sample of just 5,430 cars. Cartell declined to comment on the report, a copy of which has been seen by The Irish Times.
The procedure for reporting total write-offs is the main reason for the discrepancies in the figures. Insurance companies are not obliged to notify the department if a customer's car is a total write-off.
Michael Horan, manager of the Irish Insurance Federation's non-life division, said the industry could not keep a full list of total write-offs because policyholders who do not hold a comprehensive insurance policy don't have to tell their insurer if their car has been written off. They can simply cancel the policy. He said the federation could not make its own list of write-offs public because of this.
The department spokeswoman said car owners were obliged to report if a vehicle had been "scrapped or destroyed".
However, Cartell's research, now the subject of an official investigation, shows that there are gaps on the NVF and that some total write-offs are on the road again after being classified by one of the country's largest insurance companies as being unsafe to drive.
A major insurance company paid £22,000 in a compensation claim arising from the first accident on Mr Fagan's car. This didn't stop a garage from selling the car after that crash.
Mr Fagan said yesterday that if he had known the car he bought was a write-off, he would have returned it and his son would not have died in the vehicle.