More than a million cash-strapped motorists could be driving on Britain's roads with accident-damaged vehicles, new research suggests.

Tens of thousands could be unaware that the safety of their vehicles has been compromised by minor prangs, according to Accident Exchange, which calculated the estimate.

As petrol prices soared, annual car travel fell by over 9 billion miles - or 2.9% - between 2006 and 2012. While the number of accidents remained largely static, the percentage reported to the authorities fell by 2.2% and the number of recorded repairs fell by a significant 21%.

That leaves an estimated 1,092,000 drivers who opted not to have their vehicles repaired following an accident in the last 12 months alone.

Analysts at Accident Exchange, which manages thousands of accidents annually, say that a combination of crippling insurance costs and squeezed household incomes have underpinned the potentially worrying trend.

Accident Exchange CEO, Steve Evans, said: "The double whammy impact of losing their No Claims Discounts and paying increased excesses on insurance claims has seen the number of private settlements between fault and non-fault drivers rise. The innocent party is then choosing to pocket the money rather than seeking to repair what they see merely as cosmetic damage."

For a driver with a £500 excess, cosmetic damage caused by a car parking bump or lower-speed accident is often cheaper to settle privately rather than claim through their insurance policy.

Some insurers are offering excesses as high as £750, which can dramatically reduce monthly premiums, but according to an AXA Insurance study one in three motorists admit that they could not afford to pay the excess they agreed to on their policy.

The risk is that damage done by minor prangs is more than cosmetic and that the structural integrity of the vehicle may compromised, despite not being visible.

Components at the front of the car such as the `crash box', radiator or airbag sensors, if damaged or moved even at low speeds, could compromise the effectiveness of the car's safety features in the event of another accident.

On some models in particular, hydraulic suspension parts at the front of the car can be shifted out of place and weakened by a minor bump, greatly increasing the risk of suspension collapse later.