Avehicle-ramming attack, also known as avehicle as a weapon orVAW attack,[1] is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberatelyrams avehicle into a building, people,[2][3] or another vehicle. According toStratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent thansuicide bombings.[4]
Deliberate vehicle-ramming into a crowd of people is a tactic used byterrorists,[5] becoming a major terrorist tactic in the 2010s because it requires little skill to perpetrate, cars and trucks are widely available, and it has the potential to cause significant casualties.[6][7][8] Deliberate vehicle-ramming has also been carried out in the course of other types ofcrimes,[9] includingroad rage incidents.[10][11] Deliberate vehicle-ramming incidents have also sometimes been ascribed to the driver'spsychiatric disorder.[12][a]
Vehicles have also been used by attackers to breach buildings with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in theSaint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.[13]
According to the U.S.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."[2] Vehicles are as easy to acquire as knives, but unlike knives, which may arouse suspicion if found in one's possession, vehicles are essential for daily life, and the capability of vehicles to cause casualties if used aggressively is underestimated.[14]
Counterterrorism researcherDaveed Gartenstein-Ross of theFoundation for Defense of Democracies toldSlate that the tactic has been on the rise inIsrael because, "the security barrier is fairly effective, which makes it hard to get bombs into the country."[15] In 2010,Inspire, the online, English-language magazine produced byal-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urgedMujahideen to choose "pedestrian only" locations and make sure to gain speed before ramming their vehicles into the crowd in order to "achieve maximum carnage".[15]
Vehicle attacks can be carried out bylone-wolf terrorists who are inspired by an ideology but who are not working within a specific political movement or group.[16] Writing forThe Daily Beast, Jacob Siegel suggests that the perpetrator ofthe 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 theRand Corporation, as "stray dogs", rather thanlone wolves, characterizing them as "misfits" who are "moved from seething anger to spontaneous deadly action" by exposure toIslamist propaganda.[17] A 2014 propaganda video byISIL encouraged French sympathizers to use cars to run down civilians.[18]
According toClint Watts, of theForeign Policy Research Institute, where he is a senior fellow and expert on terrorism, the older model where members of groups likeal-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.[17] Watts says thatAnwar al-Awlaki, the American-born al-Qaedaimam, was a key figure in this shift, addressing English-speakers in their language and urging them to "Do your own terrorism and stay in place."[17]
Jamie Bartlett, who heads the Violence and Extremism Program atDemos, 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.[19] 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 fromjihad, 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."[19][20]
According toStratfor, the American global intelligence firm, "while not thus far as deadly assuicide bombing", this tactic could prove more difficult to prevent. No single group has claimed responsibility for the incidents.[4][clarification needed] Experts see a saving grace in the ignorance and incompetence of most lone-wolf terrorists, who often manage to murder very few people.[19]
Vehicular ramming has sometimes been advocated to attackprotesters who block public roadways in the United States. Two police officers were suspended and fired in January and June 2016, respectively, for tweeting such advice aboutBlack Lives Matter rallies, which have sometimes been broken up by cars.North Dakota state legislatorKeith Kempenich tried and failed to pass a law granting civil immunity to drivers who accidentally hit activists after his mother-in-law was stopped byDakota Access Pipeline protesters, andTennessee SenatorBill Ketron did likewise after a man hit ananti-Trump group. Similar legislation has been introduced inFlorida andTexas.[21]
In the 2017Charlottesville car attack, a motorist murdered a woman protesting against white supremacy and injured several dozen others.
Protective measures against vehicle attacks are known as hostile vehicle mitigation. This involves reducing the risk posed by vehicle as a weapon attacks through a mixture of measures. Visibly this often includes physical barriers, but also includes other measures such as deterrence, staff training, traffic management, and incident response planning.[22]
Security bollards are credited with minimizing damage and casualties in the2007 Glasgow Airport attack,[23][24] and with preventing ramming in the2014 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.[25] However, Berlin's police chief, Klaus Kandt, argued that bollards would not have prevented the2016 Berlin truck attack, and that the required security measures would be "varied, complex, and far from a panacea".[26]
On 23 October 2014, the USNational Institute of Building Sciences updated its Building Design Guideline onCrash- and Attack-Resistant Models ofbollards, 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".[27] TheAmerican Bar Association recommends bollards as effective protection against car-ramming attacks.[28]
In January 2018, it was announced by the thenmayor of New York City,Bill de Blasio, that the city planned to install 1,500 steel street barriers to prevent vehicle attacks. This came after the city's two vehicle-ramming attacks in 2017 killed nine people.[29]
Münster has been planning to install security bollards in public areas in response to vehicle-ramming attacks in European cities, including the Berlin attack.[30] 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.[31]
ModernInternet-connecteddrive-by-wire cars can potentially behacked remotely and used for such attacks. In 2015, to demonstrate the severity of this type of attack, hackers remotely carjacked a Jeep from 10 miles away and drove it into a ditch.[32][33] Measures forcybersecurity of automobiles to prevent such attacks are often criticized as being insufficient.[citation needed]
In Toronto, older transit buses and sanitation vehicles are used as anti-ramming barricades, providing a more benign public experience.[34]
Media related toVehicle-ramming attacks at Wikimedia Commons