Although we all end up paying for it in higher insurance premiums!!!!

I am now off the horse (got a bit of vertigo up there!!!) and back on the ground

Uninsured drivers push things up higher that normal claims. We're actually paying for them, as this cant be recovered.

Insurance firms can perfectly cover insured loses

yep, she's a scrapper

Totally agree, the car's had it as a kinked sill almost certainly means creased boot floor and bent floor pan. In the current market the costs will be higher then value of the car.

Also as said make sure you visit a hospital withing 24 hours as pain from the injuries of what sounds like a quite violent impact can take a while to appear, but you need to have seen a doc should you need to claim for medical expenses etc.