Vehicle-ramming attack

A vehicle-ramming attack, also known as a vehicle as a weapon or VAW attack,^[1] is an assault in which a perpetrator deliberately rams a vehicle into a building, people,^[2]^[3] or another vehicle. According to Stratfor Global Intelligence analysts, this attack represents a relatively new militant tactic that could prove more difficult to prevent than suicide bombings.^[4]

Deliberate vehicle-ramming into a crowd of people is a tactic used by terrorists,^[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 of crimes,^[9] including road rage incidents.^[10]^[11] Deliberate vehicle-ramming incidents have also sometimes been ascribed to the driver's psychiatric disorder.^[12]^[a]

Vehicles have also been used by attackers to breach buildings with locked gates, before detonating explosives, as in the Saint-Quentin-Fallavier attack.^[13]

^ "The National Vehicle Threat Mitigation Unit". Protect UK. 19 August 2021.
^ Issued 13 December 2012 (14 February 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
^ Rapoport, David C. (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.
^ Cite error: The named reference stratfor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
^ ^a ^b ^c "Mass casualty traffic incidents like Endymion's are rare, but do happen". New Orleans Times-Picayune. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2016.
^ Amanda Erickson & Isaac Stanley-Becker, How ramming cars into crowds became a major terror tactic, Washington Post (22 March 2017).
^ Keating, Joshua (5 November 2014). "Why Terrorists Use Vehicles as Weapons". Slate. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
^ Jamison, Alastair (20 December 2016). "Truck Attacks: Low-Tech, Soft Target Terrorism Is Growing Threat". NBC News. Retrieved 27 September 2017.
^ 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)."
^ 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."
^ Audi driver pleads guilty after video shows him mowing down man in road-rage incident in New Brunswick, Canadian Press (28 February 2017).
^ ^a ^b 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 schizophrenia, profound or suicidal depression, dementia, and disturbances in consciousness, such as epilepsy and narcolepsy."
^ Weinberg, Stevie. "The June 26 Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (France) Attack". IDC Herzliya. Retrieved 24 September 2021.

Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).

[1] "The National Vehicle Threat Mitigation Unit". Protect UK. 19 August 2021.

[ufouo-2] Issued 13 December 2012 (14 February 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.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)

[Rapoport2006-3] Rapoport, David C. (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.

[stratfor-4] Cite error: The named reference stratfor was invoked but never defined (see the help page).

[nolorare-5] "Mass casualty traffic incidents like Endymion's are rare, but do happen". New Orleans Times-Picayune. 27 February 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2016.

[6] Amanda Erickson & Isaac Stanley-Becker, How ramming cars into crowds became a major terror tactic, Washington Post (22 March 2017).

[KeatingWeapons-7] Keating, Joshua (5 November 2014). "Why Terrorists Use Vehicles as Weapons". Slate. Retrieved 27 September 2017.

[JamisonThreat-8] Jamison, Alastair (20 December 2016). "Truck Attacks: Low-Tech, Soft Target Terrorism Is Growing Threat". NBC News. Retrieved 27 September 2017.

[9] 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)."

[10] 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."

[11] Audi driver pleads guilty after video shows him mowing down man in road-rage incident in New Brunswick, Canadian Press (28 February 2017).

[Felthouse-12] 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 schizophrenia, profound or suicidal depression, dementia, and disturbances in consciousness, such as epilepsy and narcolepsy."

[14] Weinberg, Stevie. "The June 26 Saint-Quentin-Fallavier (France) Attack". IDC Herzliya. Retrieved 24 September 2021.

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