{"id":119,"date":"2016-06-06T20:57:33","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T20:57:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.spaldingnebraska.com\/?page_id=119"},"modified":"2016-07-18T18:46:51","modified_gmt":"2016-07-18T18:46:51","slug":"terrorist-threats","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/?page_id=119","title":{"rendered":"Terrorist Threats & Trucking"},"content":{"rendered":"

Adequate Vetting of Truck Drivers Is Essential!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

Increasing Truck Driver Shortages Creates a Vetting Issue!!<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/h1>\n

We often equate terror attacks with the use of firearms and explosives: legally prohibited objects whose sole purpose is to inflict harm or cause damage. Yet in Thursday night\u2019s\u00a0attack in Nice, France, it appears that most\u00a0of the 84 deaths at the scene were caused not by\u00a0an automatic rifle or a bomb.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead it was a large white truck, careening through a Bastille Day crowd, that brought\u00a0death, injuries and chaos.\u00a0The truck had been rented on Monday from a branch\u00a0of the\u00a0Via Location rental agency, just outside of Nice, a woman at the agency said in a phone call on Friday.<\/strong><\/p>\n

French authorities have labeled the attack an act of terrorism, although the exact motivations of the truck\u2019s driver remain unclear and no group has claimed responsibility at the time of writing.\u00a0For many who have been watching terrorism tactics over the past few years, if not decades, the use of a motor vehicle as a weapon to harm civilians is not a surprise.\u00a0In fact, some might argue that they are more surprised that it took this long for a motor vehicle to be used in a major attack in the West.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The truck that slammed into revelers late Thursday is seen at the site of the attack in Nice, southern France. (Luca Bruno\/AP))<\/strong><\/p>\n

Terror and trucking: Where the threats hide<\/strong><\/h3>\n
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Mineta Transportation Institute experts say threat level is low overall for now, but warn against complacency, especially for tanker and bus fleets.<\/strong><\/h3>\n
Jun 6, 2016<\/span>Sean Kilcarr<\/a> <\/span>| Fleet Owner<\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

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While surface transportation systems are becoming more \u201cattractive\u201d as targets for terrorists<\/a><\/span> \u2013 especially due to ever tighter airline security measures \u2013 Mineta Transportation Institute<\/a><\/span> (MTI) experts believe the threat to trucking remains relatively low overall.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

However, Bruce Butterworth, a Mineta research associate and former director of aviation security operations at the\u00a0Federal Aviation Administration<\/a> <\/span>(FAA), told Fleet Owner that doesn\u2019t mean threat risks don\u2019t exist \u2013 especially where\u00a0tanker fleets<\/a><\/span> are concerned.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cWhile we primarily focus on the surface transportation of the public by rail and by bus, it is probably fair to say that for attackers seeking high body counts with a minimum of complications \u2013 such as the jihadists we are most concerned about \u2013 your average commercial truck does not present a target more valuable than a mass transit system of a large city that carries large number of people and upon which people rely, or buses where people also rely on them,\u201d he explained.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Of course, Butterworth noted that deranged people and \u201clone loons\u201d can attack any time and anything, and have, so that needs to be taken into account.\u00a0 \u201cAlso, patterns can change, and past attack records are no guarantee that the future will remain the same,\u201d he added.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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\u201c[But] a key exception to what we say about commercial trucking would be gasoline and, to a lesser degree, propane tankers which carry commodities that could \u2026 be used to attack infrastructure and, more importantly, targets such as buildings or even open air events where large numbers of people could be consumed by fire and\/or explosive force,\u201d Butterworth pointed out.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Butterworth and Brian Michael Jenkins, director of the MTI\u2019s national transportation safety and security center, also noted in a recent research update that current security measures make airliners \u201chard targets,\u201d and thus over the years, the number of attempted hijackings and bombings gradually has declined\u2014though the public areas of airports remain vulnerable, they stressed.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Yet in contrast, public surface transportation\u2014trains, metros, subways, and buses\u2014offer terrorists easy access and crowds of people, making them especially attractive to terrorists seeking high body counts; helping explain why terrorist attacks on surface transportation targets have increased worldwide, Butterworth said.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

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MTI said its research shows that buses are attacked outside of North America quite frequently, and with “surprising lethality.” (Photo by Sean Kilcarr\/Fleet Owner)<\/strong><\/h4>\n

\u201cAs for buses, our research shows that buses are attacked outside of North America quite frequently, and with surprising lethality,\u201d he told Fleet Owner. \u201cBut these tend to occur in developing countries which rely upon buses and also in developed countries \u2013 such as Israel \u2013 that also rely on them.\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n

By contrast, in the U.S., bus transportation generally is not relied upon as much as it is in these countries, which may make it a less valuable target, he said.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

\u201cBut here again, deranged persons and common criminals are something that should be of concern, and can do significant damage in an enclosed environment using arson \u2013 this has happened in China \u2013 or knife or a firearm, which has happened here,\u201d Butterworth stressed.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Yet he noted that this does not mean surface transportation management personnel necessarily must have their \u201chair on fire\u201d when it comes to concerns over terrorism.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

In fact, in a recent report, MTI found that while the number of plots against mass transit systems have grown and are very worrying, between 1970 and 2015 there were only 18 serious and criminal attacks in Canada and the U.S. against passenger train and bus targets, of which only six caused any fatalities (a total of 15) with the three with the greatest death tolls caused by \u201cderanged individuals\u201d such as Colin Fergusson\u2019s shooting spree<\/a><\/span> in a Long Island Railroad train car that killed 6 and injured 19 back in 1993.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

All told, in Western Europe and North America between 1970 and the end of 2015, only about 11% of terrorist attacks in the world occur in Western Europe, Canada and the U.S. against public transit systems. Since 1970, there have been only 22 attacks in Canada and the U.S. against passenger trains and buses, along with another 31 attacks against freight trains and transportation infrastructure such as roads and tracks, according to MTI\u2019s data, with only four of those attacks causing fatalities.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Still the bad news, though, is that surface transportation targets continue to appear in terrorist plots \u2013 indicating that trains and buses are clearly in the terrorists\u2019 playbooks, MTI said.<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For example, worldwide, terrorist attacks with 25 or more fatalities on buses, trains and passenger ferries grew from only four between 1975 and 1985 to 39 between 2005 and 2015, the group noted.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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Adequate Vetting of Truck Drivers Is Essential! Increasing Truck Driver Shortages Creates a Vetting Issue!! We often equate terror attacks with the use of firearms and explosives: legally prohibited objects whose sole purpose is to inflict harm or cause damage. Yet in Thursday night\u2019s\u00a0attack in Nice, France, it appears that most\u00a0of the 84 deaths at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-119","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=119"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/119\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.drive4college.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}