Earlier this month, two terror attacks were carried out in Las Vegas and New Orleans using trucks rented from the peer-to-peer car rental company Turo.
Both trucks were battery electric vehicles and authorities suspect that the terrorists wanted to use the possibility of battery explosion to their advantage to inflict more casualties. Thankfully neither battery pack on the trucks, a Ford Lightning and a Tesla Cyber Truck, provided that outcome.
On the X social media network, many posts have criticized Turo’s policies for easy access to car and truck rentals by individuals that may be using them for nefarious purposes.
Turo fully launched in North America in 2012, and since has booked over 27 million trips. It operates somewhat like an Air BNB for vehicles. The owner of the vehicle rents to private individuals through the app which vets the renters and gets a cut of the rental fee. According to Turo, only 0.1% of their rentals end up concluding with a severe issue such as theft or collision.
The attraction to Turo is that they provide cars that aren’t traditionally available at mainstream rental companies like Enterprise or Hertz. Any car you can think of is on Turo and the rental fees vary wildly. The ones in my area are mostly milder vehicles renting from $50-$100 a day, which is comparable to most mainstream companies renting cars.
Turo CEO Andre Haddad released a statement on January 3rd expressing sympathy to the victims but denying any blame for the attacks.
“They could have boarded any plane, checked into any hotel, or rented a car or a truck from any traditional vehicle rental chain.” he said in a press release on the incidents.
In my opinion, he is correct. Turo does conduct basic background checks on the renters and car owners before doing business. Turo uses what they call a “multi-layer data-science-based trust and safety process,” whatever that means. Both attackers were able to pass background checks for firearms, so a car rental anywhere should not have been an issue.
A check of the FBI’s database does not show Ryder making any settlements in either of the cases; however, people’s interpretation of the law changes. It is still an open question if someone or a company can be held liable when their property is used to commit a crime in the circumstances.
The question of if they should be held financially responsible for these attacks will probably be decided by a judge and jury in the future, as I am sure that lawyers will be knocking on the doors of the victims and their families looking for business.
While many may think this is a new tactic by foreign and domestic terrorists, it has been done before. When I heard of these attacks, I immediately thought of two.
On Feb. 26, 1993, Ramzi Yousef and Eyad Ismail drove a Ford Econoline box truck into the bottom parking garage of the tower one of the World Trade Center. The truck, rented from Ryder rental company, was packed with explosives in an attempt to collapse the tower and kill as many people as possible. Their attack did not cause the damage they had hoped for, but did kill six people who were working in the building.
In another more deadly case, another Ryder truck was rented April 15, 1995, under the name of Robert D. Kling, an alias for Timothy James McVeigh. Four days later it was parked in front of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City with a large fertilizer bomb in the cargo area. The explosion killed 168 people and earned McVeigh the death penalty.
While the attacks like the two this year are horrific, the tactics used are not new; these are just two examples off the top of my head. Criminals have and will continue to use rental vehicles to commit crimes.
If you read this far expecting a solution to this problem from me, I am sorry to disappoint you. There are evil people in this world, and they will always find a way to do evil. Rental companies and sites like Turo do their due diligence to prevent things like this, but evil will always find a way.
As for me, I will see you on the road!
