Why There Are So Many Car-Ramming Attacks—and What to Do About It
Fans wrapped in red scarves and dressed in the English team's jerseys were at a victory parade the day after the season's end when a grey minivan turned onto the parade route around 6 p.m. local time. The vehicle struck a man, throwing him into the air, then plowed through a larger group of people before coming to a stop, video on social media shows. The crowd reportedly charged the stopped vehicle and smashed its windows, but the driver continued driving through the rest of the crowd. In total, 27 people were taken to the hospital, including two with serious injuries, and 20 others were treated at the scene for minor injuries, according to Dave Kitchin of North West Ambulance Service.
Police arrested a 53-year old white British man from the Liverpool area. Police say they do not believe the incident is terrorism-related but asked that people not speculate or share 'distressing content online' while the investigation proceeds.
'Everyone, especially children, should be able to celebrate their heroes without this horror,' British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement from Downing Street.
It's the latest major vehicle-ramming incident to happen across the globe. In April, a 30-year-old man sped an SUV down a closed street into a crowd of people attending a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, Canada, killing 11. In February, a 24-year-old man killed a mother and her daughter and injured 37 others when he rammed his car into a union rallydemonstration in Munich, Germany. In January, a 42-year-old man drove a pickup truck into a crowd in New Orleans, La., in the early hours of New Year's Day, killing at least 15 in what police called an act of terrorism. In December, at least five people were killed and over 200 injured when a 50-year-old man rammed an SUV into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. And in November, a 62-year-old man slammed a car into people exercising at a sports complex in Zhuhai, southern China, killing 35.
Here's what to know about vehicle-rammings, why they're so dangerous, and what to do in case of an attack.
Comprehensive data is limited, but according to a 2019 study from San Jose State University researchers, 70% of vehicle-ramming incidents up to that point had happened in the last five years. In 2016, vehicle-ramming attacks were the most lethal form of attack and accounted for more than half of all terrorism-related deaths that year. A string of high-profile attacks in 2016 and 2017 killed more than 100 people, the deadliest of which happened in Nice, France, on Bastille Day, July 14, 2016, when a man drove a rented truck through a seaside promenade, killing 86.
In the past six months alone, there have been 15 vehicle-ramming attacks worldwide, not counting the latest in Liverpool, killing 71 people, according to the National Transportation Security Center.
Part of why vehicle-ramming has become a more frequent method of choice for mass-casualty attacks is due to the relative ease in carrying it out. 'This tactic requires little or no training, no specific skillset, and carries a relatively low risk of early detection,' nonprofit global policy think tank Rand said.
'A car, a knife—these are everyday items, often it's very unclear that someone has bad intentions with them until it's too late,' Bart Schuurman, professor of terrorism and political violence at Leiden University, told Euronews in April. In cases of orchestrated terror attacks, using a vehicle lets people get around counter-terrorism efforts that make access to firearms and explosives difficult, Schuurman added.
But not all cases are orchestrated by terrorist groups. Some incidents are mental health-related, like in Zhuhai, China, or they are ideologically-affiliated but committed by an individual. It's become a 'quickly adopted' method by right-wing extremists, for example, Schuurman said, such as when a white supremacist killed one and injured 35 people who were protesting against a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville in 2016 and when a 25-year old self-described 'incel,' drove a rental van into a crowd of mainly women in Toronto in 2018, killing 10 people and injuring 16.
The diversity in perpetrators and their motivations poses an additional challenge to preventing attacks.
A 2018 study on the 'imitative' quality of vehicle rammings found that car-ramming incidents offer a model in terms of 'the act itself, as something that is not merely an expression of an individual or an ideology, but something that has a lure and force all of its own.'
'It subconsciously becomes part of the repertoire of options for people to express their anger in some way and they get exposed to it through the vectors of the media and social media,' sociologist Vincent Miller, who co-authored the study, told DW News. 'The profile of the perpetrator is very hard to define. The main thing they have in common is the act,' he added.
A 2021 report by Rand looked into how rental or vehicle-sharing schemes have been used in some attacks, such as was the case in the New Year's Day ramming in New Orleans. It suggested that limited collaboration between industry and law enforcement due to data protection constraints, a lack of industry-wide training when it comes to identifying a potential attacker, and insufficient security procedures during online booking can all make it harder to mitigate an attack.
Pauline Paille, a Rand researcher focused on international security, told DW News that certain barriers to vehicle rentals could be implemented to mitigate against such attacks. These include stronger background checks and financial deposits, as well as geofencing—which uses location data to create virtual boundaries for cars—to block smart cars from turning into pedestrianized areas.
Paille also said that urban areas could be redesigned to separate roads from footpaths. Vehicle barriers are already commonly used during large-scale outdoor pedestrian events such as festivals or parades as a mitigation strategy.
The Department of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency offers some guidance on how to prevent an attack or what to do if one happens.
While the use of a car or other vehicle often means there are fewer indicators of an attack plot, CISA suggests looking out for the following and reporting them to authorities if they seem suspicious, particularly for vehicle rental business workers:
Reported theft of large or heavy-duty vehicles
Difficulty explaining the planned use of a rented vehicle
Nervousness or other suspicious behaviour during a vehicle rental discussion, for example insistence on paying in cash
Lack of or refusal to produce required documentation for a vehicle rental
Difficulty operating, or apparent lack of familiarity or experience with, a rented vehicle
Loitering, parking, or standing in the same area over multiple days with no clear explanation
Unexplained use of binoculars, cameras, or recording devices around a certain area
In case of a vehicle-ramming attack, pedestrians should:
Run away from the vehicle and towards the nearest safe area
If you fall, curl into a protected position and try to get up as soon as possible to avoid being trampled
Seek cover behind any objects that eliminate the direct line of sight from the vehicle
Call 9-1-1 and follow instructions from law enforcement and first responders
Organizers of events should:
Include clear signage for emergency entry and exit points, first-aid stations, and shelter locations
Define the perimeter that requires access control for pedestrians and vehicles
Restrict vehicular traffic through pedestrianized areas
Use remote parking and shuttle services
Use physical barriers like bollards, heavy planters, and barricades, to create standoff distances between large crowds and vehicles
Consider positioning heavy vehicles around the perimeter of crowded areas to serve as an additional physical barrier
Contact us at letters@time.com.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Post
22 minutes ago
- New York Post
Britain waves the white flag to Islamization and illegal immigration
With almost every day that passes, Britain is progressively embracing its own destruction by groveling to its mortal foes and dumping big-time on its most loyal friends. Prime Minister Keir Starmer's Labour government is increasingly surrendering to Islamization while presiding over a poisonous culture of antisemitism that's roaring out of control. For the past decade, more than 170,000 illegal immigrants have crossed the English Channel from France in small inflatable boats. Successive governments have failed to deal with this people-smuggling trade, which has provoked fury among the British public aghast at the unsustainable levels of immigration, both legal and illegal. Brits are also horrified by the impact of large numbers of Muslim migrants who refuse to integrate into British society. 4 Abu Wadei, a pro-Hamas Gazan, captured his arrival in Britain via the English Channel in a Facebook post. While most UK Muslims sign up to Western values, a very large minority do not. Of the 43,000 active terrorists on the books of security service MI5, some 90% are Muslim — a community that's a mere 6% of the population. And now the illegal immigrant trade poses an acute danger to British security. With MI5 issuing urgent warnings of an imminent threat of Iranian terrorism within Britain, there are indications the all-too-obvious risk of terrorists coming in across the Channel is real. In May, three Iranian men who arrived in Britain on small boats and a truck to claim asylum were charged with spying for Tehran. 4 Farhad Javadi Manesh, 44, Shapoor Qalehali Khani Noori, 55, and Mostafa Sepahvand, 39, appear in May at Westminster Magistrates' Court after their arrests on spying charges. Julia Quenzler / SWNS In March, an Arab from Gaza who arrived in southern England on a small boat and posted on social-media support for Hamas and calls for the death of Jews was arrested and jailed after pleading guilty to attempting to enter Britain illegally. The UK TV station GB News revealed this month that cross-Channel smuggling gangs are marketing themselves with ISIS recruitment videos and execution footage on social media. Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Courage Media reported a 'credible' intelligence source warns people-smuggling gangs are facilitating trained Islamic militants' passage across the Channel and have trafficked arms across Europe and into Britain. Intercepted 2015 telephone calls and letter correspondence between ISIS members divulged their ambition to use migrants in boats crossing the Mediterranean as a 'psychological weapon' against Europe. Britain already has an estimated 1.2 million illegal migrants, with one in every 13 people in London thought to be there illegally. Despite all this, Starmer's attempts to deal with the small-boats crisis have been feeble in the extreme. He just agreed a 'one migrant in, one migrant out' deal with French President Emmanuel Macron. This deal will reportedly be limited to just 50 illegal migrants a week, or 1.5% of all those who've arrived in Britain since the crisis began. On the very day the deal was agreed, some 573 illegal migrants landed on British shores in small boats from France. The Starmer-Macron agreement provoked ridicule and fury in equal measure among the British public as a hopelessly inadequate response to a national-security emergency. 4 Inflatable dinghies and outboard motors illegal migrants used to cross the English Channel from France are displayed in Dover. Getty Images This must be set in the context of the British state's craven response to the growing political power of British Muslims intent upon Islamizing British society. Britain commemorated the 20th anniversary of the 7/7 human-bomb attacks on the London Underground and a bus in which 52 people were murdered with wreaths laid and solemn speeches made. Yet no one — not the prime minister nor the king nor London Mayor Sadiq Khan — mentioned these were Islamist atrocities. Ludicrously, Starmer hailed 'the unity of Londoners in the face of terror,' saying 'those who tried to divide us failed.' But the bombers didn't try to divide Londoners. They tried to murder as many as possible and in the name of Islam. Starmer tries to pretend there are no divisions between Muslims and the rest of the public by shutting down all criticism of the Muslim world. Accordingly his government is busily working out ways to give the pseudo-offense of 'Islamophobia' real teeth. While seeking to stifle any mention of Islamist terror, the government is trying to criminalize those seeking to defend the British way of life. Thus an online training course hosted on the government's website for the anti-extremism body Prevent lists concern about mass migration as 'cultural nationalism' that could lead to an individual being referred to the deradicalization scheme for subscribing to a 'terrorist ideology.' Starmer has been much criticized for his reluctance to set up a national inquiry into the pimping gangs, composed overwhelmingly of Pakistani-heritage Muslims, that have kidnapped, raped, prostituted and otherwise abused thousands of very young white girls over the past two decades. Yet astoundingly, Muhbeen Hussain, who led a Muslim-community boycott of South Yorkshire police over its admission it had failed to act on rape-gang allegations 'because of fears of being called racist' — which he said attempted to 'scapegoat' Muslims — has been awarded the MBE, a prestigious national honor, for 'services to integration' and 'cohesion.' 4 London Mayor Sadiq Khan and Prime Minister Keir Starmer commemorate the 7/7 terror attacks. Getty Images Compare all this with the treatment meted out to Britain's inoffensive, law-abiding Jewish community, which is experiencing epidemic antisemitism that's off the scale. Lord Mann and Dame Penny Mordaunt, respectively a Labour and a Conservative politician, this month expressed deep shock in their government-backed report that antisemitism has become 'normalised' in middle-class Britain. The report, commissioned by the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the country's largest Jewish-community organization, found antisemitism to be pervasive in the health service, universities and the arts. Mann and Mordaunt said what really scared them is 'the increasing normalisation of far more extreme, personalised and sometimes life-changing impact directed at individuals purely and simply because they are Jewish.' Ever since the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas-led atrocities against Israelis, British Jews have run a gauntlet of hatred, intimidation and attacks, both verbal and physical, as the direct result of incitement based on a systematic campaign of demonization and eye-watering falsehoods about Israel's behavior in Gaza. Through distortion, decontextualization and outright lies, Britain's media — led by the BBC and Sky — have channeled Hamas propaganda day in, day out. They have wickedly misrepresented Israel's just and agonizing war to defend itself against extermination and its attempts to safeguard as far as possible the lives of Gazan civilians being used as human shields and cannon fodder as genocide and war crimes. With Israelis being painted as diabolical child-killers, British Jews find themselves being personally accused of 'killing babies' and restaurants and pubs refusing to serve 'Zionists.' No other group is spoken of in such a vile manner. No other people is subjected to such profound and obsessional injustice. No other nation is told it has no right to its own country and its national-liberation movement is a source of evil. Yet instead of defending the country's Jews against this pre-pogrom incitement, the Starmer government has poured petrol on the flames by parroting the same Hamas lies about Israelis killing 'too many' civilians or depriving Gazans of food — this while Israel and America are providing millions of meals to Gazans for the first time receiving food aid that's not being stolen from them by Hamas. Starmer's behavior displays the dire effects of the alliance that's been forged between Western liberals and Islamist radicals. It's laying waste to America's Democratic Party and found its most alarming expression in Zohran Mamdani, the Islamist poised to become New York mayor. He too channels Hamas lies about Israel; he too will make his city's Jewish community more unsafe; he too will undermine America's security. Americans should gaze upon Britain and be warned. Melanie Phillips' latest book is 'The Builder's Stone: How Jews and Christians Built the West and Why Only They Can Save It.'
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Request to unseal Epstein grand jury transcripts likely to disappoint, ex-prosecutors say
NEW YORK (AP) — A Justice Department request to unseal grand jury transcripts in the prosecution of chronic sexual abuser Jeffrey Epstein and his former girlfriend is unlikely to produce much, if anything, to satisfy the public's appetite for new revelations about the financier's crimes, former federal prosecutors say. Attorney Sarah Krissoff, an assistant U.S. attorney in Manhattan from from 2008 to 2021, called the request in the prosecutions of Epstein and imprisoned British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell 'a distraction.' ' The president is trying to present himself as if he's doing something here and it really is nothing,' Krissoff told The Associated Press in a weekend interview. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche made the request Friday, asking judges to unseal transcripts from grand jury proceedings that resulted in indictments against Epstein and Maxwell, saying 'transparency to the American public is of the utmost importance to this Administration.' The request came as the administration sought to contain the firestorm that followed its announcement that it would not be releasing additional files from the Epstein probe despite previously promising that it would. Epstein is dead while Maxwell serves a 20-year prison sentence Epstein killed himself at age 66 in his federal jail cell in August 2019, a month after his arrest on sex trafficking charges, while Maxwell, 63, is serving a 20-year prison sentence imposed after her December 2021 sex trafficking conviction for luring girls to be sexually abused by Epstein. Krissoff and Joshua Naftalis, a Manhattan federal prosecutor for 11 years before entering private practice in 2023, said grand jury presentations are purposely brief. Naftalis said Southern District prosecutors present just enough to a grand jury to get an indictment but 'it's not going to be everything the FBI and investigators have figured out about Maxwell and Epstein.' 'People want the entire file from however long. That's just not what this is,' he said, estimating that the transcripts, at most, probably amount to a few hundred pages. 'It's not going to be much,' Krissoff said, estimating the length at as little as 60 pages 'because the Southern District of New York's practice is to put as little information as possible into the grand jury.' 'They basically spoon feed the indictment to the grand jury. That's what we're going to see,' she said. 'I just think it's not going to be that interesting. ... I don't think it's going to be anything new.' Ex-prosecutors say grand jury transcript unlikely to be long Both ex-prosecutors said that grand jury witnesses in Manhattan are usually federal agents summarizing their witness interviews. That practice might conflict with the public perception of some state and federal grand jury proceedings, where witnesses likely to testify at a trial are brought before grand juries during lengthy proceedings prior to indictments or when grand juries are used as an investigatory tool. In Manhattan, federal prosecutors 'are trying to get a particular result so they present the case very narrowly and inform the grand jury what they want them to do,' Krissoff said. Krissoff predicted that judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases will reject the government's request. With Maxwell, a petition is before the U.S. Supreme Court so appeals have not been exhausted. With Epstein, the charges are related to the Maxwell case and the anonymity of scores of victims who have not gone public is at stake, although Blanche requested that victim identities be protected. 'This is not a 50-, 60-, 80-year-old case,' Krissoff noted. 'There's still someone in custody.' Appeals court's 1997 ruling might matter She said citing 'public intrigue, interest and excitement' about a case was likely not enough to convince a judge to release the transcripts despite a 1997 ruling by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that said judges have wide discretion and that public interest alone can justify releasing grand jury information. Krissoff called it 'mind-blowingly strange' that Washington Justice Department officials are increasingly directly filing requests and arguments in the Southern District of New York, where the prosecutor's office has long been labeled the "Sovereign District of New York" for its independence from outside influence. 'To have the attorney general and deputy attorney general meddling in an SDNY case is unheard of,' she said. Cheryl Bader, a former federal prosecutor and Fordham Law School criminal law professor, said judges who presided over the Epstein and Maxwell cases may take weeks or months to rule. 'Especially here where the case involved witnesses or victims of sexual abuse, many of which are underage, the judge is going to be very cautious about what the judge releases,' she said. Tradition of grand jury secrecy might block release of transcripts Bader said she didn't see the government's quest aimed at satisfying the public's desire to explore conspiracy theories 'trumping — pardon the pun — the well-established notions of protecting the secrecy of the grand jury process.' 'I'm sure that all the line prosecutors who really sort of appreciate the secrecy and special relationship they have with the grand jury are not happy that DOJ is asking the court to release these transcripts,' she added. Mitchell Epner, a former federal prosecutor now in private practice, called Trump's comments and influence in the Epstein matter 'unprecedented' and 'extraordinarily unusual' because he is a sitting president. He said it was not surprising that some former prosecutors are alarmed that the request to unseal the grand jury materials came two days after the firing of Manhattan Assistant U.S. Attorney Maurene Comey, who worked on the Epstein and Maxwell cases. 'If federal prosecutors have to worry about the professional consequences of refusing to go along with the political or personal agenda of powerful people, then we are in a very different place than I've understood the federal Department of Justice to be in over the last 30 years of my career,' he said. Krissoff said the uncertain environment that has current prosecutors feeling unsettled is shared by government employees she speaks with at other agencies as part of her work in private practice. 'The thing I hear most often is this is a strange time. Things aren't working the way we're used to them working,' she said.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
A look at recent vehicle-ramming incidents worldwide
A vehicle that was driven into a crowd outside a Los Angeles nightclub early Saturday and injured 30 people — seven critically — is the latest in a series of car-ramming tragedies around the globe. The driver, whom police identified as Fernando Ramirez, 29, was pulled from his vehicle and shot by a bystander. He was arrested on a charge of assault with a deadly weapon. Other vehicle-ramming incidents have claimed lives. Here are some major vehicle-ramming incidents in recent years: London, May 26 — A 53-year-old British man plows his minivan into a crowd of Liverpool soccer fans who were celebrating the city team's Premier League soccer championship, as shouts of joy turned into shrieks of terror, injuring more than 45 people. Vancouver, Canada, April 26 — A suspect is charged with multiple counts of murder after an Audi SUV speeds down a closed, food-truck-lined street and hits people attending a festival, killing 11. Officials say 32 people are hurt. Authorities say the suspect, a 30-year-old man, had a history of mental health issues. New Orleans, Jan. 1 — At least 15 people are killed and dozens are injured after a U.S. citizen from Texas rams a vehicle into a crowd of pedestrians in the bustling French Quarter district at 3:15 a.m. on New Year's Day. The FBI identifies the suspect as 42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar. He is killed in a gunfight with police. Magdeburg, Germany, Dec. 20, 2024 — At least five people are killed and more than 200 are injured when a car slams into a Christmas market in eastern Germany. Police arrest a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who supports Germany's far-right AfD party. Zhuhai, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rams his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35. Authorities say the suspect was upset about his divorce. He pleads guilty to endangering public safety by dangerous means and is sentenced to death. Waukesha, Wis., Nov. 21, 2021 — Six people are killed and dozens injured when a man drives his SUV through a Christmas parade in suburban Milwaukee. Darrell Brooks Jr., who drove into the crowd after getting into a fight with his ex-girlfriend, was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of release. London, Canada, June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family are killed when an attacker hits them with a pickup truck in the Ontario city. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau calls it 'a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.' White nationalist Nathaniel Veltman is sentenced to life in prison. Toronto, April 23, 2018 — Alek Minassian, 25, drives a rental van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge Street, the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian tells police he belongs to an online 'incel' community of sexually frustrated men. He is sentenced to life in prison. New York, Oct. 31, 2017 — Sayfullo Saipov, an Islamic extremist from Uzbekistan, drives a pickup truck onto a popular New York City bike path, killing eight people. He is convicted of terrorism and sentenced to 10 life sentences plus 260 years in prison. Barcelona, Spain, Aug. 17, 2017 — A man rams a van into people on the crowded Las Ramblas boulevard, killing 14 and injuring others. The militant group Islamic State claims responsibility. Several members of the same extremist cell carry out a similar attack in the nearby resort town of Cambrils, killing one person. Charlottesville, Va., Aug. 12, 2017 — During a 'Unite the Right' rally, white supremacist James Alex Fields Jr. drives his car into a crowd of counterprotesters, killing one woman and injuring dozens of people. Fields is serving a life sentence for murder and hate crimes. London, June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drives a van into worshipers outside a mosque in Finsbury Park, killing one man and injuring 15 people. He is sentenced to life in prison. London, June 3, 2017 — Three attackers drive a van into pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people are killed, and the attackers are shot dead by police. London, March 22, 2017 — Khalid Masood rams an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, then fatally stabs a police officer guarding the Houses of Parliament. Masood is shot dead. Melbourne, Jan. 20, 2017 — Six people are killed and more than 30 injured when a car hits lunchtime crowds at a pedestrian mall in the Australian metropolis. James Gargasoulas is found to have been in a state of drug-induced psychosis and is sentenced to life in prison. Berlin, Dec. 19, 2016 — Anis Amri, a rejected asylum seeker from Tunisia, plows a hijacked truck into a Christmas market in the German capital, killing 13 people and injuring dozens. The attacker is killed days later in a shootout in Italy. Nice, France, July 14, 2016 — Tunisian-born French resident Mohamed Lahouaiej-Bouhlel drives a rented truck along a packed seaside promenade in the French Riviera resort on the Bastille Day holiday, killing 86 people in the deadliest attack of its kind. He is killed by police. Eight other people are sentenced to prison for helping orchestrate the attack. Stillwater, Okla., Oct. 24, 2015 — A woman plows a car into a crowd at an Oklahoma State University homecoming parade, killing four people, including a toddler, and injuring many others. Adacia Chambers, who pleaded no contest to more than 40 felony charges, is serving four concurrent life sentences for the deaths. Apeldoorn, Netherlands, April 28, 2009 — Former security guard Karst Tates drives a car into parade spectators in an attempt to hit an open-topped bus carrying members of the Dutch royal family. Six people are killed, and Tates dies of injuries the next day, leaving his full motive a mystery. Chapel Hill, N.C., March 3, 2006 — University of North Carolina graduate Mohammed Taheri-Azar drives an SUV into a crowd at the university, injuring nine people, in a self-professed bid to avenge Muslim deaths overseas. He is sentenced to up to 33 years in prison. Santa Monica, July 16, 2003 — An 86-year-old man crashes into a farmers market, killing 10 people and injuring dozens of others. He was sentenced to probation after being convicted of 10 counts of vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence.
