A look at some recent deadly attacks involving vehicle rammings

A car-ramming Saturday at a Filipino community festival in Vancouver that killed at least 11 people marks Canada’s fourth attack in seven years in which vehicles have been used as deadly weapons.

Around the world, perpetrators fuelled by motives ranging from terrorism and far-right extremism to misogyny and mental illness have deployed the tactic increasingly in recent decades.

Vehicles are “easily obtainable, and a ramming attack requires little preparation” or skill, notes a 2018 study from San Jose State University’s Mineta Transportation Institute.

The gruesome practice has also proven devastating, yielding a high death toll in horrific fashion when crowds are gathered.

“It is in fact an effective tactic for motivated individuals to do harm, if you think about it, because it doesn’t require any special training,” said Jennifer Magnus, who teaches public safety and law enforcement at Wilfrid Laurier University.

“They can grab a vehicle, whether they rent it or use their own, and then just use it as a weapon against innocent bystanders.”

Magnus, who served as a Calgary police officer for 14 years, also stressed the trauma and dread spawned by mass killings.

“It creates that level of fear in citizens.”

While mass shootings are rare in Canada relative to its southern neighbour, car-ramming attacks have ramped up over the past decade.

Here is a look at some other recent attacks:

NEW ORLEANS, Jan 1, 2025 — A driver plowed a pickup truck through a crowd of New Year’s Day revellers on the city’s historic Bourbon Street, killing 14 people. The FBI called the rampage an act of terrorism. The driver, Texas citizen Shamsud-Din Jabbar, died in a shootout with police.

MAGDEBURG, Germany, Dec. 20. 2024 — A car drove into a Christmas market in eastern Germany, killing at least five people and injuring more than 200. The suspect, who was arrested, is a 50-year-old doctor originally from Saudi Arabia who had expressed anti-Muslim views and support for the far-right AFD party.

ZHUHAI, China, Nov. 11, 2024 — A 62-year-old driver rammed his car into people exercising at a sports complex in southern China, killing 35 people in the country’s deadliest mass slaying in years. Authorities said the perpetrator was upset about his divorce but offered few other details.

LONDON, Ont., June 6, 2021 — Four members of a Muslim family were killed while out for a walk when an attacker hit them with a pickup truck. Then-prime minister Justin Trudeau called the killings “a terrorist attack, motivated by hatred.” White nationalist Nathaniel Veltman was sentenced to life in prison.

TORONTO, April 23, 2018 — A 25-year-old Canadian man, Alek Minassian, drove a rented van into mostly female pedestrians on Yonge St., the main thoroughfare in Toronto, killing 10 people and injuring 16. Minassian told police he belonged to the online “incel” community of sexually frustrated men.

LONDON: June 19, 2017 — Darren Osborne, a man radicalized by far-right ideas, drove a van at worshippers outside a mosque in London’s Finsbury Park area, killing one man and injuring 15 people.

LONDON: June 3, 2017 — Three attackers drove a van at pedestrians on London Bridge before stabbing people in nearby Borough Market. Eight people were killed and the attackers were shot dead by police.

LONDON: March 22, 2017 — British man Khalid Masood rammed an SUV into people on Westminster Bridge, killing four, before stabbing to death a police officer guarding the Houses of Parliament nearby. He was shot dead.

(SOURCE: The Associated Press, The Canadian Press)