ERBIL, Kurdistan Region- The import of dangerous salvage cars from the United States is due to come to an end, with the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) issuing a ban due to go into effect on July 1.
Salvage cars are those that have been severely damaged in car accidents – to the extent that US insurance companies are no longer willing to insure them.
According to figures from the KRG’s General Directorate of Trade, 313,105 cars have been imported to the Kurdistan Region in the past two and a half years. The vast majority of them - 80%, or 250,000 - are salvage cars.
Most of the imports pass through the Bashmakh and Haji Omaran border crossings with Iran.
“According to our follow up, about 80% of the cars imported through the Bashmakh and Haji Omaran are damaged American cars. Businessmen bought them because they are cheap. They are either bought from Dubai or from the US,” Bawer Idris, Director of Sales in Bolzano Company for General Trade and Car Importing, told Rudaw.
The low price of the cars and the ease of their import has enticed many people to plunge into salvage car dealership.
“I know someone who had a supermarket. He left it and became a businessman importing cars. There are those who raised cattle, but then left it for the [car import] business and now own a company,” Idris added.
As lucrative as they have proven to be, salvage cars are known to be death traps for drivers.
Sixty percent of salvage cars have already had their single-use airbags set off by accidents involving their previous owners, according to Idris. Despite the risks posed by the absence of an airbag, many car dealers choose not to replace them because they are too costly.
Replace a salvage car’s airbag would cost a car dealer $4,000, Idris explained.
To avoid replacing the airbags, dealers sometimes link the car’s airbag indicator to that of the seatbelt, or to the engine’s dynamo, according to Idris. Some even pull out the airbag indicator fuse altogether.
According to Tariq Ziyd, Head of Inspections at the Periodic Vehicle Inspection Company, most imported American cars are still defective even after the airbags have been fixed.
Ziyd says that many of the cars his company has expected in the past six months have had defective seatbelts, steering wheels, and voltage, handbrake or brake pedal issues.
As the number of salvage cars hitting the Kurdistan Region’s roads has increased, so have the incidences of car accidents.
Car accidents in 2018 increased 42% on the previous year. The first six months of this year saw car accidents increase a further 17%.
According to Nawzad Adham, head of the Directorate of Trade, importing salvage cars has always been illegal. It has always been asked of quality control inspection companies at border crossings not to give permits to cars damaged by flooding, or cars with already used airbags.
However, the trade body lacks legal power, allowing companies to get away with avoiding regulations with impunity.
With a letter dated June 17, 2019 sent by the KRG’s Minister of Interior to Directorate General of Customs, stipulating that salvage cars can only be imported until June 30, the necessary legal clout to enforce punishment has now been established. Any trader who imports a car that fails to meet custom safety standards faces a hefty 50 million dinar fine (approximately $42,000).
Flood-damaged cars and cars with their chassis cut out will not be allowed in under any circumstances. Salvage cars with undamaged trunks, steering, or airbags, on the other hand, can be imported if they meet the other safety standards.
Despite knowing of the danger these cars pose, government response has been slow.
According to Sami Jalal, Chief of Staff at the Ministry of Interior, an agreement had been made with central Iraqi government to ban salvage car imports in May of this year.
However, with large numbers of their cars in the import pipeline, car dealers opposed the decision. The Ministry caved to their pressure, postponing the ban’s start date until July 1.
From now on, each imported car will go through three stages of inspection.
Upon entry at the border crossing, they will be inspected by experts. The second inspection will then be done by quality control companies. Final inspection will take place at the Directorate of Traffic, where the car will then be registered for use in the Kurdistan Region.
According to Jalal, if at the third stage it is determined that the car doesn’t meet safety standards, the quality control company will be fined $5,000 (6 million Iraqi dinars), while car dealers face the 50 million dinar fine.
All border crossings and customs points have been notified to no longer allow in damaged cars.
“From now on, there will be more monitoring on the import of these used cars,” Samal Abdulrahman, Director General of the Kurdistan Region’s customs points, told Rudaw.
The ultimate driving force behind the decision to ban salvage car imports is to “protect the lives of the people,” according to Jalal.
“We have found that most accidents that occur are due to these cars,” he added.
