Most car-ramming incidents aren’t terrorism – but they’re becoming more common and crowds need better protection

Hundreds of thousands of Liverpool Football Club fans packed the centre of Liverpool on Monday to celebrate the club’s English Premier League title.

Shortly after 6pm local time, a grey Ford Galaxy drove into the crowd, just minutes after the team’s open-top bus had passed through.

At the time of writing, 47 people were injured – 27 of whom were taken to hospital, including four children.

Two victims remain in serious condition.

What happened in Liverpool?

According to eyewitnesses and initial footage, the vehicle came to a stop during what appeared to be an altercation with members of the crowd.

The driver then reversed briefly before accelerating forward into the crowd.

The driver, a 53-year-old local man, was arrested at the scene. Police say the incident is not being treated as a terrorism case and appears to be isolated.

It’s not clear yet why the man drove into the crowd. Authorities have asked the public not to share misinformation about a possible motive.

Broadly speaking, it’s important to note vehicle attacks on crowds are becoming more frequent. We need to recognise the emerging patterns and common risk factors behind such incidents, so crowds can be better protected in the future.

This appears to be happening more

There have recently been several reports of vehicles ramming into crowds of pedestrians around the world.

The growing number is troubling. In recent months alone, there have been incidents in:

• Vancouver, Canada on April 26: a man drove an SUV into a crowd during a Filipino heritage celebration, killing 11

• Jinhua, China on April 22: a woman drove into pedestrians near an elementary school, killing 14

• Mannheim, Germany on March 3: a man drove into a group of people in a pedestrian area, killing two

• Munich, Germany on February 13: a man rammed his vehicle into a crowd at a labour union demonstration, killing a mother and her two-year-old daughter

• New Orleans, United States on January 1: a man ploughed a truck into New Year’s Eve crowds on Bourbon Street, killing 14

• Magdeburg, Germany on December 20, 2024: a man drove a BMW into a crowded Christmas market, killing six people, including a nine-year-old boy, and injuring at least 299 others.

Of these seven recent incidents, only two have been confirmed as lone wolf acts of terrorism. This suggests vehicle-ramming attacks are often not terrorism and do not necessarily reflect the threat level in any particular city or country.

In at least two of the recent cases — Mannheim and Vancouver — the perpetrators were reported to have a history of psychiatric illness.

Australia has not been immune to vehicle-ramming incidents. In January 2017, a driver deliberately struck pedestrians on crowded Bourke Street in Melbourne, killing six people and injuring dozens. Another car ramming in Melbourne later that year left one person dead.

Although neither of these incidents were classified as terrorism, they exposed potential vulnerabilities in urban design and crowd protection.

Global trends

So, what do these patterns tell us about the risk of vehicle-ramming attacks? And how can those insights help us better protect crowds?

By systematically coding and analysing documented incidents from news media and publicly maintained sources, such as Wikipedia, we have identified at least 152 vehicle-ramming attacks targeting civilian crowds worldwide since the year 2000.

These attacks have resulted in an estimated 511 deaths to-date. The deadliest by far remains the 2016 Nice truck attack in France, when a 19-tonne cargo truck was deliberately driven into Bastille Day celebrations, killing 86 people and injuring hundreds more. The attacker was shot dead by police; eight others were convicted of terrorism-related or weapons charges.

The countries with the highest number of incidents are: the US (31), China (29), Germany (14) and Israel (14).

The United Kingdom, prior to the recent Liverpool incident, had recorded six cases. Australia has had five such incidents.

The global data show a sharp spike in incidents in 2017 and 2018, followed by a brief decline and another uptick after 2022. So far, in 2025 alone, there have been at least 14 incidents worldwide, resulting in 50 or more deaths.

Notably, less than a third of these attacks have been confirmed as acts of terrorism.

What now?

While it’s important to monitor how terrorist organisations shift tactics, recent vehicle-ramming incidents point to a broader and more complex picture.

These attacks are increasingly linked to a mix of other factors, including mental health crises, personal grievances and spontaneous rage.

From a public safety and event planning perspective, the motive matters less than the outcome. A vehicle, regardless of intent, can cause mass harm and that risk must be managed.

Here are key practical measures that cities should implement to better protect crowds during open-street events:

• install robust barriers: barriers that can withstand ramming by a truck travelling at high speeds should be placed at every access point. Plastic cones and caution tape are not enough

• mind the spacing: barriers must be spaced tightly to prevent vehicles from slipping through or bypassing them

• disrupt straight paths: avoid long, open road stretches that allow vehicles to build speed. Use fencing, kiosks or parked vehicles to break up lines of sight and create natural chicanes that slow movement

• control vehicle access tightly: only essential, pre-approved emergency or service vehicles should enter event zones and only under supervision, within strict time windows

• keep restrictions in place post-event: no vehicle access should be allowed until the area has fully cleared of people. The crowd’s presence doesn’t end when the event does.

To put it simply, at no point during an open-street event – before, during or after – should an unauthorised vehicle be able to come in contact with a crowd.