Dealing with trauma after vehicle-ramming attacks

Over the past decade, cars and trucks have been used as lethal weapons in an increasing number of attacks.

Fourteen people died and at least 35 were injured when a driver of a pickup truck targeted crowds in New Orleans on New Year’s Day. Less than a month earlier, a nine-year-old child and five adults were killed in a similar incident in the eastern German city of Magdeburg where a car was driven through a crowded Christmas market.

In our conversations, we hear from Kathy and Donna. Kathy was dancing in a Christmas parade in the town of Waukesha in the US state of Wisconsin in 2021 when a car rammed into the performers, killing six people and injuring dozens more.

Donna was watching the parade: “I remember it like it was yesterday,” she tells host Mark Lowen. “These are things you see on TV, when you see them right in front of your eyes, you don’t understand, you have no comprehension of what just happened.”

Donna and Kathy are joined by Astrid in Germany, whose father was killed in a 2016 attack on a Christmas market in Berlin.

And in the aftermath of the New Year’s Day attack in New Orleans, we bring together a local pastor, Page, and his wife, Ashley – a professional counsellor, who have been providing support to those affected.

Presenter: Mark Lowen
BBC OS producers: Virginia Kelly and Iqra Farooq
Boffin Media producer: Richard Hollingham

An EcoAudio certified Boffin Media production in partnership with the BBC OS team.

(Photo: A mourner weeps at a vigil, after people were killed by a US Army veteran who drove a truck into a crowd celebrating New Year's Day, in New Orleans, Louisiana, 4 January, 2025. Credit: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters)