Wow, thats too bad. Did you get a key FOB with the car? Does the FOB work correctly? I've seen them over on Ebay for $20 if you need another one. I went out and tried my trunk lock with just the key and yes it locks and unlocks the whole car either way. Sounds like you need to take the trunk lid apart anyway. The trunklighting ground wire runs into the main plug at the trunk latch, the plug is integral with the latch. The ground wire coming from the trunklight is a blue wire with brown stripe on it. Maybe the trunk latch is bad (it controls both) and causing both your problems due to the accident or post-accident repair work. If you ground out the blue/brown wire your trunklight should come on. They may have left the grounding straps off the trunk lid when they did the repair, look around for disconnected black wires. Anyway take the insolation off the trunk lid and look around. You'll probably need to pull the lock/latch assembly out and test it but I'm guessing thats your problem. Good luck ....... Mike