Feature article from SAICB Newsletter

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VISION
To be the fusion centre (multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional information-sharing organisation) and leading authority on fighting organised crime in the insurance and assurance industry

MISSION
The SAICB will achieve this through the consolidation of multiple data sources and the deployment of relevant and specialised skills together with the unique technology solutions, that will provide industry intelligence, promote collaboration, address prevention and detection, to obtain convictions and recovery.

DEFINITION: ORGANISED CRIME
"Organised insurance crime is when an individual or group commits fraud or crime against one or more insurance companies. This would include a habitual or multiple claimant using an "elaborate" scheme to defraud a single or multiple companies."

Feature article from SAICB Newsletter - August 2010 edition

ROAD SAFETY

The SAICB attended the IISA Conference on 23 July 2010 on the sustainability of Motor Insurance and the South African statistics on road safety and crime left a lasting and sobering impression on all those who attended.

According to Viviene Pearson, the South African Insurance Association (SAIA) Manager responsible for Motor issues—approximately 40% of the short term insurance business is Motor related and approximately 70% of claims processed by the industry is motor related. Approximately 70% of the motor claims are accident related. This makes the issue of road safety initiatives and strategy of utmost importance to our industry.

Some of the statistics that were revealed at the Seminar:

SA has one of the highest road traffic death tolls in the world (Info from Arrive Alive 2009 and SA Department of Transport (DOT) National Road Safety Strategy—2006 and onwards):

The number of unlicensed vehicles on the roads is 481,000
The number of un-roadworthy vehicles on the roads is 377,000
There is a total of 970,000 expired licenses
There is a total of 233,000 expired Professional Driving Permits
95% of road accidents are preceded by a road traffic offence
14 000 lives are needlessly lost every year
7 000 people are permanently disabled every year
40 000 people are seriously injured every year

The following are some of the identified causes related to these stats from DOT Strategy:

Poor driver behaviour and attitude
A “culture of impunity” results in no change of behaviour (fines)
Average vehicle age 10 years, average taxi age 13 years
Fraud and corruption
Lack of first class high speed roads through informal settlements and rural areas with high pedestrian activity (almost half of the fatalities are pedestrians)

It is estimated that the cost of crashes per year leads to a loss of around R43 billion to the state, communities and individuals.

It is therefore no surprise that the SAIA, the representative body of the majority of the short term insurers in South Africa has placed Road Safety and Motor related crime prevention initiatives as a priority area in their strategy with the formation of three Motor related Committees. Working closely with Business Against Crime SA (BACSA), Government , the SAICB, the motor industry and other related organizations, the SAIA has been proactively supporting activities that address the causes of our horrific crime and road safety statistics.

This issue of the Newsletter looks at the strategies being adopted internationally to address Road Safety and what we can learn from these initiatives. The true extent of the problem in South Africa is laid bare when compared to the road deaths and statistic internationally and should give us all serious pause for thought and hopefully spur us all on to do something as an industry and as individuals, to curbs these horrific statistics.