Vehicle-ramming attack

Damage caused by the 2008 Jerusalem bulldozer attack that killed 3 victims and the attacker

A vehicle-ramming attack is a form of attack in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a motor vehicle into a building, crowd of people,[1][2] or another vehicle.

Deliberate vehicle ramming into crowd of people is a tactic used by terrorists,[3] becoming a major terrorist tactic in the 2010s because it requires little skill to perpetrate and has the potential to cause signficant casualties.[4] Deliberate vehicle-ramming has also been carried out in the course of other types of crimes,[5] including road rage incidents.[6][7] Deliberate-vehicle ramming incidents have also sometimes been caused by the driver's psychiatric disorder.[8][lower-alpha 1]

Vehicles can also be used by attackers to breach a building with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.

21st-century increase

The 21st century has seen a rise in vehicle ramming attacks carried out as acts of terrorism by individuals committed to an ideology.[9] In 2014, Canadian columnist Andrew Coyne describes the phenomenon as a form of "micro-terrorism", and argues that Canadians "had better get used to... the baffling phenomenon of the homegrown terrorist ... who for whatever reason takes it into his head to kill any number of his fellow citizens in the service of his cause."[10]

Causes propelling the rise of the tactic

According to the American Federal Bureau of Investigation, the tactic has gained popularity because "Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience."[1] Counterterrorism researcher Daveed Gartenstein-Ross of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies told Slate that the tactic has been on the rise in Israel because, "the security barrier is fairly effective, which makes it hard to get bombs into the country."[11] In 2010, Inspire, the online, English-language magazine produced by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged jihadis to choose "pedestrian only" locations and make sure to gain speed before ramming their vehicles into the crowd in order to "achieve maximum carnage".[11]

Vehicle attacks can be carried out by lone-wolf terrorists who are inspired by an ideology, but who are not actually working within a specific political movement or group.[12] Writing for The Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel suggests that the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack may be "the kind of terrorist the West could be seeing a lot more of in the future", a kind that he describes, following Brian Jenkins of the Rand Corporation, as "stray dogs", rather than lone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure to Islamist propaganda.[13] A 2014 propaganda video by ISIL encouraged French sympathizers to use cars to run down civilians.[14]

According to Clint Watts, of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, where he is a senior fellow and expert on terrorism, the older model where members of groups like al-Qaeda would "plan and train together before going to carry out an attack, became defunct around 2005", due to increased surveillance by Western security agencies.[13] Watts says that Anwar al-Awlaki, the American born al-Qaeda imam, as a key figure in this shift, addressing English-speakers in their own language and urging them to "Do your own terrorism and stay in place."[13]

Jamie Bartlett, who heads the Violence and Extremism Program at Demos, a British think tank, explains that "the internet in the last few years has both increased the possibilities and the likelihood of lone-wolf terrorism," supplying isolated individuals with ideological motivation and technique.[15] For authorities in Western countries, the difficulty is that even in a case like that of the perpetrator of the 2014 Couture-Rouleau attack, where Canadian police had identified the attacker, taken away his passport, and were working with his family and community to steer him away from jihad, vehicle attacks can be hard to prevent because, "it's very difficult to know exactly what an individual is planning to do before a crime is committed. We cannot arrest someone for thinking radical thoughts; it's not a crime in Canada."[15][16]

According to Stratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly as suicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.[17] Experts see a sort of saving grace in the ignorance and incompetence of most lone wolf terrorists, who often manage to murder very few people.[15]

Protective measures

Security measures taken to protect the Houses of Parliament in London, UK. These heavy blocks of concrete are designed to prevent a car bomb or other device being rammed into the building.
Concrete blocks in the city centre of Dresden during the 2016 German Unity Day Celebrations

On 23 October 2014, the US National Institute of Building Sciences updated its Building Design Guideline on Crash- and Attack-Resistant Models of bollards, a guideline written to help professionals design bollards to protect facilities from vehicle operators, "who plan or carry out acts of property destruction, incite terrorism, or cause the deaths of civilian, industrial or military populations".[18] The American Bar Association recommends bollards as effective protection against car ramming attacks.[19]

Security bollards are credited with minimizing damage and casualties in the 2007 Glasgow Airport attack.[20][21] Security bollards are credited with preventing ramming in the 2014 Alon Shvut stabbing attack, leading the assailant to abandon his car and attack pedestrians waiting at a bus stop with a knife, after his effort to run them over was thwarted.[22] Berlin's police chief, Klaus Kandt, argued that bollards would not have prevented the 2016 Berlin attack and that needed security measures would be "varied, complex, and far from a panacea".[23]

While only selected locations can be protected this way, tight bends and restricted-width streets may also prevent a large vehicle getting speed before reaching a barrier.[24]

Modern Internet-connected drive-by-wire cars can potentially be hacked remotely and used for such attacks. In 2015, hackers remotely carjacked a Jeep from 10 miles away and drove it into a ditch.[25][26] Measures for cybersecurity of automobiles to prevent such are often criticized as to being insufficient.

List of vehicle-ramming attacks

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Terrorism

2017 attack in Stockholm, Sweden

In chronological order:

May, 2017 New York City, Times Square,[27] (ramming into sidewalk, one dead, 22 injured)</ref> https://www.nytimes.com/2017/05/18/nyregion/times-square-crash.html?_r=0

Other

Notes

  1. ↑ Accidental vehicle ramming causing multiple deaths or injuries to pedestrians or others also occurs, although rarely.[3] Causes of such accidental mass-casualty vehicular ramming include drunk and drug–impaired driving or driver error by elderly drivers.[8] See also sudden unintended acceleration.[3]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Issued 13 December 2012. "Department of Homeland Security-FBI Warning: Terrorist Use of Vehicle Ramming Tactics". FBI and Department of Homeland Security. Archived from the original on 28 October 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  2. ↑ David C. Rapoport (2006). Terrorism: The fourth or religious wave. Taylor & Francis. pp. 150–. ISBN 978-0-415-31654-5. Archived from the original on 10 December 2014.
  3. 1 2 3 "Mass casualty traffic incidents like Endymion's are rare, but do happen". New Orleans Times-Picayune. February 27, 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
  4. ↑ Amanda Erickson & Isaac Stanley-Becker, How ramming cars into crowds became a major terror tactic, Washington Post (March 22, 2017).
  5. ↑ David Ormerod, John Cyril Smith & Brian Hogan, Smith and Hogan's Criminal Law (13th ed. 2011: Oxford University Press), p. 1138: "There are at least six ways that a person might be held liable for causing a death by driving. At the most extreme it is possible for D[efendant] to be liable for murder, as when he drivers at V[ictim] with intent to kill or do gbh (great bodily harm)."
  6. ↑ R.G. Smart, "Transport Related Stress" in Stress Consequences: Mental, Neuropsychological and Socioeconomic (ed. George Fink: Academic Press, 2009), p. 708: "A national study in the United States found that ... of respondents ... 1-2% had gotten out of their cars to hurt other drivers, deliberately hit other drivers, or had carried a weapon.
  7. ↑ Audi driver pleads guilty after video shows him mowing down man in road-rage incident in New Brunswick, Canadian Press (February 28, 2017).
  8. 1 2 Alan R. Felthouse, "Personal Violence" in The American Psychiatric Publishing Textbook of Forensic Psychiatry (2d ed.: eds. Robert I. Simon & Liza H. Gold), pp. 551-52: "An automobile is a potentially lethal machine. Litigation involving psychiatrists has resulted when a hospitalized patient, after discharges, caused a two-person vehicle accident with death or injuries to one or more victims ... Such cases involve three different types of scenarios. One is the vehicular crash that results from the patient's medication-induced drowsiness at the wheel ... The second scenario is a true accident but is unrelated to any prescribed medication. Rather, the patient's driving is impaired by the disabling effects of mental illness [or] recent consumption of nonprescribed drugs or alcohol. The third situation is when the patient deliberately crashes into another vehicle. Neuropsychiatric conditions that can be associated with an increased risk of vehicular crash include psychotic exacerbation of of schizophrenia, profound or suicidal depression, dementia, and disturbances in consciousness, such as epilepsy and narcolepsy."
  9. ↑ Yaakov Lappin; Etgar Lefkovits (29 August 2011). "Background: Ramming terror attacks in recent years". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  10. ↑ Coyne, Andrew (22 October 2014). "We can't stop every terror attack, so let's brace ourselves and adapt". National Post. Archived from the original on 12 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  11. 1 2 Keating, Joshua (5 November 2014). "Why Terrorists Use Vehicles as Weapons". Slate. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  12. ↑ Daly, Brian (21 October 2014). "Lone wolf terrorists hard to stop". Edmonton Sun. QMI. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  13. 1 2 3 Siegel, Jacob (24 October 2014). "Lone Wolves, Terrorist Runts, and the Stray Dogs of ISIS Why ISIS and al Qaeda rely on loners and losers to carry out their terrorist agenda in the West". Daily Beast. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  14. ↑ "ISIS and Al Qaeda have specifically called for the type of attack that just happened in France".
  15. 1 2 3 Bajekal, Naina (23 October 2014). "The Rise of the Lone Wolf Terrorist". Time Magazine. Archived from the original on 14 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  16. ↑ Mataconis, Doug (23 October 2014). "The attack on Canada's Parliament and the 'lone wolf' terrorist". Christian Science Monitor. Archived from the original on 6 November 2014. Retrieved 6 November 2014.
  17. ↑ Israel: Vehicle Attacks – A New Militant Tactic?. Stratfor Global Intelligence
  18. ↑ Oakes, Charles (23 October 2014). "The Bollard: Crash- and Attack-Resistant Models". Whole Building Design Guide, National Institute of Building Sciences. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  19. ↑ Ernest B. Abbott and Otto J. Hetzel, "Homeland Security Begins at Home: Local Planning and Regulatory Review to Improve Security", in Rufus Calhoun Young, Jr. and Dwight H. Merriam, A Legal Guide to Homeland Security and Emergency Management for State and Local Governments, American Bar Association, 2006
  20. ↑ Garfield, Simon (7 December 2007). "Terrorists are foiled at Glasgow airport". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  21. ↑ "Glasgow airport ramps up use of bollards". Glasgow Evening Times. 22 December 2008. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 7 November 2014.
  22. ↑ Tait, Robert (10 November 2014). "Israeli woman, 25, and soldier killed in twin stabbing attacks – Incidents happen hours apart, suggesting an escalation of recent violence". The Daily Telegraph. Archived from the original on 11 November 2014. Retrieved 11 November 2014.
  23. ↑ Halliday, Josh; Perraudin, Frances (20 December 2016). "What can be done to prevent Berlin-style attacks in modern cities?". The Guardian. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  24. ↑ http://i-hls.com/2017/01/vehicle-ramming-attacks-security-measures/
  25. ↑ Greenberg, Andy. "Hackers Remotely Kill a Jeep on the Highway—With Me in It". WIRED. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  26. ↑ "Hackers take control of car, drive it into a ditch". The Independent. 22 July 2015. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  27. ↑
  28. ↑ "'Fatalities' after central London vehicle and stabbing attacks". 4 June 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  29. ↑ Gerber, Marisa. "Driver plowed into Venice boardwalk crowd 'in anger,' prosecutor says". latimes.com. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  30. ↑ "Sopot: wjechał w tłum ludzi na Monciaku. Sąd pozwolił mu wyjść na wolność". PolskieRadio.pl. Retrieved 2017-07-01.
  31. ↑ Karimi, Faith; Castillo, Mariano; Ford, Dana (22 December 2015). "Las Vegas Strip: Driver hits dozens on sidewalk". CNN. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  32. ↑ Hartley-Parkinson, Richard (16 October 2016). "Shocking video of moment driver deliberately knocks down pedestrians". Metro. Metro.co.uk. Retrieved 9 January 2017.
  33. ↑ "Homem joga carro contra pedestres em Balneário Camboriú". Visor Notícias. 20 February 2017.
  34. ↑ "German man, 73, dies after car driven into pedestrians in Heidelberg". 25 February 2017.
  35. ↑ "One dead, two injured in Heidelberg car attack". 25 February 2017. Retrieved 4 June 2017 – via www.bbc.com.
  36. ↑ (AP) (New Orleans Times-Picayune) (AP via ABC News)
  37. ↑ Schreuer, Milan. "Man in Antwerp, Belgium, Tries to Drive Into Crowd". New York Times. Retrieved 12 April 2017.
  38. ↑ CNN, Ray Sanchez. "Car barrels into pedestrians in New York's Times Square". CNN. Retrieved 2017-05-19.
  39. ↑ "Melbourne car attack: Bourke Street death toll reaches five after three-month-old baby dies". ABC. 22 January 2017.
  40. ↑ Whitehurst, Lindsay (June 9, 2017). "Police: Driver stopped when she saw argument before shooting". Fox News. Associated Press. Retrieved June 20, 2017.
  41. ↑ "Helsingin perjantaista yliajoa tutkitaan tappona – Ajoi välittämättä siitä jääkö joku alle" (in Finnish). Yle. July 29, 2017. Retrieved July 29, 2017.
  42. ↑ "Friday's papers: New car attack, rail strike reactions, summer storm coming". Yle. August 11, 2017. Retrieved August 11, 2017.

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