Vehicle-ramming attacks are on the rise. A study published in 2022 called “Democratization of terrorism: an analysis of vehicle-based terrorist events” appeared in “Trauma Surgery & Acute Care Open.” This study analyzed 257 terror attacks involving vehicles between 1970 and 2019. The authors state: “Of the 257 terror incidents, 71% (183) occurred within the last six-year span of inquiry.”
Just take a look at some of the notable incidents from late 2024 and early 2025. These include the November 11, 2024 incident in Zhuhai, China, where a 62-year-old man drove his SUV into people on an exercise track, killing 38 and injuring 48. The motive was believed to be anger over a recent divorce settlement. The perpetrator was later sentenced to death and executed in January 2025. Another recent occurrence was the December 20, 2024 attack in Magdeburg, Germany, where a 50-year-old Saudi Arabian doctor, Taleb Al-Abdulmohsen, drove a rented BMW into a crowd at the Magdeburg Christmas Market. The attack killed six people (four women aged 45-75, a nine-year-old child, and a 52-year-old woman who died later from her injuries) and injured 299 others. The perpetrator has been described by German authorities as “Islamophobic.”
Already in 2025 there have been numerous attacks starting on January 1, with the vehicle-ramming attack in New Orleans’ Bourbon Street. The attacker was identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, a 42-year-old U.S. citizen from Texas and an Army veteran. He was killed in a shootout with police after the attack. Jabbar used a rented white Ford F-150 Lightning pickup truck. He drove the truck at a high speed into a crowd of pedestrians celebrating New Year’s Day. He bypassed a police SUV and other barricades that were reportedly not fully raised or functioning correctly. He continued driving for about three blocks, hitting numerous people. After crashing, he exited the vehicle and began firing a rifle and a handgun. Police officers returned fire and killed him. The attack left fourteen people dead in addition to the perpetrator and fifty-seven others injured. The FBI investigated the attack as an act of terrorism when an ISIS flag was found in the truck. Two improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in ice coolers were found near the scene. Jabbar reportedly had a remote detonator in his vehicle for the devices. And the most recent event is the April 27, Vancouver, Canada, event where an SUV crashed into a crowd at a Filipino heritage festival in Vancouver, killing 11 people and injuring dozens. That investigation is ongoing, but initial reports suggest the 30-year-old male driver was known to the police and there was no immediate evidence of terrorism.
And these are only some of the most recent attacks.
A vehicle-ramming attack involves intentionally using a vehicle to strike pedestrians or other occupied vehicles. The vehicle itself becomes the weapon. The uptick of using vehicles as weapons started in the 2010s when Al-Qaeda and ISIS began teaching followers to use them.
Attacks like these don’t require a lot of training, cars and trucks are easily accessible and the attacks have the potential for many deaths. “Unlike other forms of terrorism, such as biological attacks, there is no need for any special skills or advanced knowledge necessary to complete a terrorist attack with a vehicle,” the “Democratization of terrorism: an analysis of vehicle-based terrorist events” paper said. “There are no international treaties such as the Biological Weapons Convention or Chemical Weapons Convention that prohibit access to the means of attack as vehicles have legitimate everyday purposes.”
More recently, individuals with far-right ideologies have also employed this method, such as the Finsbury Park attack on June 19, 2017, in London when Darren Osborne, who had become radicalized by far-right and Islamophobic views, drove a van into worshippers near a mosque in Finsbury Park, killing one man and injuring several others, and the Charlottesville, Virginia attack on August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, where James Alex Fields Jr., a white supremacist, deliberately drove his car into a crowd of counter-protesters at a “Unite the Right” rally. This attack resulted in the death of one woman, Heather Heyer, and injured dozens of others. Fields was convicted of murder and federal hate crimes.
The motivations behind car-ramming attacks can vary widely, including but aren’t limited to ideology. Mental illness, personal grievances, and even road rage can incite them. Ideology does crop up as a causal factor in the spike of incidents, however.
Attacks in crowded public spaces like open market pedestrianized streets, or parades, tend to be more lethal as do those in which rented vehicles have been used.
The recent incidents in late 2024 and early 2025, including the attacks in Germany, Israel, and Canada, unfortunately underscore that the threat of vehicle-ramming attacks remains a significant concern for security professionals and the public.
Preventing car-ramming attacks will require a multi-faceted approach that combines physical security measures, proactive strategies and community awareness. Stay tuned for a future piece in TSI that will cover some of those measures and strategies.