Two vehicle-ramming attacks and risk mitigations

It is chilling to return from Christmas leave to learn of two vehicle-ramming attacks. Motor vehicles are a study in risk/reward - they offer us mobility and convenience yet they also can cause carnage. Over Christmas time road and emergency authorities alert the public of the risk of vehicle accidents yet vehicle-ramming attacks highlight the risk that vehicles will be used as weapons.

Timely to the two vehicle-ramming events is a reminder to ensure that risk mitigation measures for public street events include the installation of temporary vehicle barriers. Naturally, there needs to be a balanced measure of implementation of the vehicle barriers in that emergency vehicle access needs to be provided for.

Another risk mitigation measure is to control vehicle movements to scheduled bump-in/bump-out times.

Here is a brief summary of the two vehicle-ramming attacks. I have been cautious in excluding any comment about the rogue actors ethnicity, country of birth or radicalisation, however, it is noteworthy that in both instance the rogue actors had publicly expressed, by social media, in the year prior to the event, intentions to end their lives in a manner that would harm others.

Table 1: Summary of recent vehicle-ramming attacks

Note: A vehicle-ramming attack is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, multiple people, or another vehicle. The count of dead and injured is accurate at 3 January 2025 at the time of publishing this article.

Shalom,

Ozhamada

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