Trucks World News

Jul 13, 2017

TERRORIST TRUCK ATTACKS * USA: Beware of the autonomous braking systems

* DC - Terrorist truck attacks spur attention to autonomous braking systems around the world

--- The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, is considering a rule for heavy-duty trucks around so-called Forward Collision Avoidance and Mitigation (FCAM)... The FCAM term encompasses not just emergency braking but more advanced avoidance tech. NHTSA considers the rule following a petition to require such technology on new vehicles that came from the truck-safety advocacy community last year in recent years... While all of that is old news, the moves in Australia give this all a new wrinkle, given that automatic emergency braking is being pitched there as another way to help prevent loss of life in the event of future terrorist attacks like those that have been perpetrated in Europe...
(Image: Collision avoidance systems -such as that in Bendix’s Wingman Fusion- were among NTSB’s most wanted improvements to transportation in 2017-2018, and NHTSA continues to consider a petition to require automatic emergency braking on all heavy-duty trucks) -- Washington, DC, USA - Overdrive, by Todd Dills - 28 June 2017

Labels: trucking industry news USA, trucks and terrorism

May 8, 2017

TRUCKING Cos. HIGH ALERT * USA: About terrorists plans to steal trucks and using them to kill

* Maryland - TSA warns of potential terrorist attacks

--- The Transportation Security Administration is warning trucking companies, their drivers and law enforcement agencies that terrorists could be planning to steal trucks and using them to kill... The TSA warns that no community, small or large in the city or in the county is immune to what they call a vehicle ramming attack... It’s a new wave of attacks, terrorists are hijacking trucks and using them as killing machines. “It’s real, it can happen, be aware,” says homeland safety expert Michael Greenberger of the University of Maryland School of Law... The six-page report obtained by CBS News references 17 vehicle-ramming attacks worldwide over the past 3 years, which lead to 173 deaths and more than 700 wounded... A recent SUV attack in London left four people dead. In Ohio, a student drove his car into a crowd and injured 11 people, and last July in France, 86 people were killed when a truck loaded with guns and grenades plowed into a crowd...
(Photo: A badly damaged car believed to have been used in the attack on Ohio University the 28 Nov 2016) -- Baltimore, MAR, USA - Baltimore CBS local, by Rick Ritter - May 5, 2017

Labels: trucking industry news USA, trucks and terrorism

Jul 18, 2016

TRUCKS AS DEADLY WEAPON ? * Europe: Terrorist trucker ... again !!!

* France: The everyday commercial truck used as a weapon for crazed terrorist drivers

(Video by SECURITY - Jul 14, 2016: #PrayForNice - If you are in France, remember to follow the authorities instructions, and notify relatives and tell them that you're okay)

--- The horrific terror attack committed in Nice, France, highlights a disturbing use for the everyday commercial truck, one most of us in this industry don’t like thinking about: as a weapon for mayhem and murder... Some 84 people are now known to be killed, along with scores of others maimed and wounded, after a terrorist behind the wheel of a straight truck plowed into a crowd of Bastille Day revelers at high speed, then exited the cab and began shooting... But using a truck as a weapon … it’s been done before with extremely deadly effect all over the world: The 1983 Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Lebanon, (for which the Iranians must now pay damages); the first World Trade Center attack in 1993; and the infamous Oklahoma City bombing carried out by Timothy McVeigh in 1995... The challenge facing transportation experts now is to figure out what kinds of trucks pose the biggest “weaponized” threat and how to counteract it...

* France - Bastille Day truck attack kills 84 in Nice - After Nice, ban trucks?

... The jihadist truck attack in Nice, France, killed and wounded scores of citizens gathered to watch Bastille Day fireworks. The day chosen was intended to be symbolic—“Your sovereignty means nothing to us. We can strike wherever and whenever we will” ... But the main point remains. Trucks do not kill scores of Frenchmen. It is their drivers. Guns do not kill. It is those who shoot them for political and ideological purposes... If we cannot understand this truth, the very spirit of which is written in our Founding, we do not deserve to live in peace in the streets of our cities...
(Photo: David Ramos / Getty Images) -- Detroit, MICH, USA - The Detroit News, by James Schall - July 15, 2016

* New York / USA - Devastating use of truck adds to security challenges

--- Nice attack likely to heighten alert for potential copycats, lead to increased security at public events... In a 2010 article in the al Qaeda magazine “Inspire,” a leader of al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged followers to pursue “individual jihad” by using pickup trucks to run down civilians, mounting sharp blades on the front to maximize deaths and injuries. “The idea is to use a pickup truck as a mowing machine, not to mow grass, but mow down the enemies of Allah,” he wrote...

RECENT TRUCK ATTACKS
* Dec. 21, 2014 Dijon and Nantes, France: A driver shouting Islamic phrases ran down 13 pedestrians in a half-hour span, seriously injuring two. The next day, another man drove into a crowd of holiday shoppers, wounding 11 people.
* Oct. 28, 2013 Beijing: Five people were killed after a Jeep crashed in front of the Forbidden City. Chinese police described it as a terrorist attack.
* May 15, 2011 Tel Aviv: One man was killed and 16 others injured after a truck crashed into several vehicles and pedestrians on a crowded Tel Aviv roadway. The driver denied intentionally causing the collision.
* June 8, 2008 Tokyo: A man drove a truck into a popular shopping street, killing three men with the vehicle before stabbing 14 people. Four of the stabbing victims died.
* April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City: Timothy McVeigh parked a rental truck packed with explosives in front of a federal building in downtown Oklahoma City. The detonation killed 168, including 19 children, and injured more than 500 people...
(PHOTO: ASSOCIATED PRESS - The north side of the Alfred Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City after a truck bomb exploded on April 19, 1995. After that attack, security officials were conditioned to look for bombs, but the Nice incident is a reminder of the deadly use vehicles can have in the hands of a terrorist) -- NY, USA - The WSJ, by ANDREW TANGEL and DEVLIN BARRETT - July 15, 2016

Labels: trucks and terrorism

Nov 3, 2010

SAFETY * USA - Congressman to introduce bill to screen all cargo aboard planes

Both FedEx and UPS have suspended shipments from Yemen

Washington,DC,USA -Fleet Owner -Nov 1, 2010: -- Following Friday’s thwarted terrorist attempt by cargo plane, Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) is seeking to close “loopholes” in the United States’ air cargo system. Markey is vowing to introduce legislation that would require security screening of all cargo on cargo planes as soon as Congress goes back into session following tomorrow’s mid-term elections... The attempted attack was identified by a tip from a Saudi Arabia official. U.S. authorities believe the packages, which both originated in Yemen, were the work of Al Qaeda and were destined for a synagogue and a Jewish center in Chicago... FedEx said authorities in Dubai found a suspicious package at a FedEx facility on Friday, and in cooperating with authorities... (Photo from 3.bp.blogspot.com: FedEx and UPS may be competitors, but their delivery drivers get along fine)

Labels: safety, trucks and terrorism

Sep 19, 2009

TRUCK & TERRORISTS * USA - Feds probe alleged terrorists suspecteds as Al Qaeda bomb plot

New York,NY,USA -The NY Daily News, by James Gordon Meek & Judith Crosson & Kate Nocera, Rocco Parascandola & Larry Mcshane -September 19th 2009: -- Investigators probed a failed Queens truck rental for ties to a possible Al Qaeda bomb plot yesterday as a chief terror suspect tried making a deal to save his skin... The New York end of the expanding federal probe centered on seven Afghan men who tried to rent the biggest truck at a Queens U-Haul on Sept. 9, sources told the Daily News... The size of the vehicle involved - a 26-foot-long truck - suggested the conspirators wanted to pack it with explosives, sources said... At least three Afghan men - including Ahmad Afzali, a Queens imam identified by a U-Haul employee as one of the would-be renters - were questioned in New York by FBI and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, sources said... And at least a dozen people remained under round-the-clock surveillance in the case... (Photo by Hagen /News - Seven men who are under a federal investigation walked into a Queens U-Haul and tried to rent the largest Jumbo Sized Super Movertruck)