Terror threat

United States: TSA Issues Report On Threat Of Terrorists Misusing Large Commercial Vehicles

A six-page Transportation Security Administration (TSA) memorandum focusing on the potential misuse of large commercial vehicles was recently issued by the TSA's Office of Security Policy and Industry, Engagement Surface Division – Highway and Motor Carrier Section. The unclassified report, "Vehicle Ramming Attacks: Threat Landscape, Indicators, and Countermeasures" (the TSA Report), states that large commercial vehicles, if misused, pose grave risk to the public, especially in locations where large crowds have congregated.

The TSA Report identified 17 known vehicle ramming attacks worldwide in recent years that resulted in 173 deaths and 667 injuries, including the attack in Nice, France, in July 2016. That attack, carried out by a terrorist who drove a large truck through a crowd celebrating Bastille Day, killed 86 innocent people and injured another 434. Fortunately, none of the commercial vehicle ramming attacks listed in the TSA Report were carried out in the United States.1 However, the TSA expressed concern that terrorists may be planning such an attack and warned that "[n]o community, large or small, rural or urban, is immune to attacks of this kind by organized or 'lone wolf' terrorists."