At the invitation of the Minister of Transport, Ms Barbara Creecy, SAIA participated in the National Road Safety Practitioners’ Colloquium, held from 2–4 September 2026 at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre. The Colloquium brought together government, road authorities, academia, law enforcement, the private sector and civil society to identify practical, measurable actions to reduce road deaths and serious injuries.

Bringing the insurance industry’s expertise to road safety

Representing SAIA, Dean Gounden, National Manager: Motor Merit Moderation at Old Mutual Insure, highlighted the role that insurers can play beyond financial sponsorship.

The industry has access to valuable aggregated claims and risk data, actuarial expertise, consumer communication platforms, technology, and extensive repair, towing and emergency-response networks. These resources can help identify risks, target interventions, and measure whether road-safety initiatives are achieving meaningful outcomes.

SAIA advocated for coordinated public-private partnerships focused on clearly identified risks, measurable outcomes and sustained impact. It also highlighted the potential to revive Business for Road Safety as a platform for companies to pool resources and expertise in support of national road-safety priorities.

A shared responsibility for safer roads

The Colloquium reinforced the importance of the Safe System approach, which recognises that people make mistakes, but that road systems should be designed to prevent those mistakes from resulting in death or serious injury.

For insurers, this has direct relevance. Poor road infrastructure, unsafe pedestrian access, inadequate lighting, flooding and other environmental risks can increase both crash frequency and claims severity. Climate change is adding further pressure through extreme weather events and infrastructure disruption.

Human behaviour, including speeding, impaired driving, fatigue, distraction and reckless driving, also remains an important road-safety concern. Addressing these risks requires a combination of education, rehabilitation, effective enforcement and appropriate consequences.

Using data to target action

Reliable data and outcome-based monitoring were identified as critical to the effective implementation of the NRSS. SAIA supports exploring how appropriately aggregated and de-identified insurance data, together with government crash, enforcement and infrastructure information, could help identify high-risk locations and behaviours and direct resources towards targeted interventions.

This could also enable stakeholders to better measure whether interventions are reducing crashes, injuries and claims, rather than simply measuring activities such as campaigns conducted or materials distributed.

SAIA’s continued contribution

SAIA supports the principles of the Colloquium Declaration, including stronger coordination, improved data systems, professionalising road-safety practice and sustainable investment in road-safety programmes.

Going forward, SAIA will engage members and government stakeholders on opportunities for industry participation, with a focus on infrastructure and climate-related risks, driver behaviour, fleet and professional-driver safety, data-led hotspot identification, enforcement capacity, and targeted consumer education.

SAIA will also continue to engage the National Department of Transport, RTMC, SANRAL and other stakeholders, including exploring the revival of Business for Road Safety.

Through its industry expertise, partnerships and access to data, SAIA can help connect insurance insights to practical road-safety action, supporting a shift from fragmented initiatives to targeted, measurable interventions that contribute to safer roads and communities.