Leading the way on research

The team at IAG’s Research Centre fires a gun for a living – a hail gun.

But it’s all in the name of a good cause: trying to increase the longevity and endurance of building materials so they can withstand the fury of another Sydney hailstorm, or other extreme weather event.

As the Information Manager at IAG’s Research Centre, Gemma Wood – along with her fellow colleagues at the Centre – is at the forefront of research that can help the community reduce their own risk, and in turn reduce the incidence of claims.

Meteorolologists are predicting more frequent and intense storms, and Gemma and her team want to make sure people are ready.

“When we fire the hail gun at tiles or steel sheeting, for example, we can price the risk of each material choice for a given storm intensity, and forecast the best solution depending on where you live,” says Gemma.

“We give feedback on product performance to manufacturers so they can improve their materials. We’re working closely with several roofing companies to ensure their products can withstand larger hailstones, like the ones we have seen recently in the Sydney Basin region.”

Their research also extends to road safety. NRMA Insurance, SGIO, SGIC and CGU insure more than five million cars, so it’s in our customers’ best interests that we look into how we can prevent accidents and injuries from happening in the first place.

This is particularly important when it comes to child safety, as it’s estimated that one child is run over in the driveway of their home every week. As the leading Compulsory Third Party (CTP) motor insurer in NSW, we help a number of children recover from injuries resulting from motor vehicle accidents like these all the time.

Gemma’s team did some research that showed that most cars on Australian roads have poor rear visibility, especially when it comes to being able to see small objects such as young children. Called the “Reversing Visibility Index”, the research provides safety ratings for several car models.

“We are urging car manufacturers to consider installing technology that will give them greater rearward visibility,” says Gemma.

“But we also want to create awareness in the community that, even with the best reversing aids, there is no substitute for adult supervision of children around cars.”

NRMA Insurance recently won a United Nations award for our road safety platform, which included the Reversing Visibility Index and our partnership with CareFlight to develop the world-first Head Injury Retrieval Trial (HIRT). This medical research trial aims to demonstrate the improved health outcomes of sending a specialist physician team by helicopter to the crash scene to treat patients with head injury.

For Gemma, the benefits of working in the research team are obvious.

“It’s rewarding to see our work tangibly increase the safety of those in the community, especially first hand with family and friends.”