Terrorism is the practice of using violence and intimidation against civilians in order to pursue political goals. It’s the anti-diplomatic way of pressuring states or other governing bodies to get something the terrorist wants. Terrorism is neither new nor focused on a single territory on our planet. It does not necessarily have something to do with religion, but it might increasingly appear that way.
How the Herne truck barrier came to be
In order to not give in to terrorism and violent threats, a popular strategy is to proceed with life and not change the ways of people or companies. Yet, in order to prevent harm to people and property, security is often heightened after acts of terror or if terrorism could be a risk to events or other public happenings. One solution provider we want to have a look at today is Herne Protect from Germany.
Video: Demonstration in motion starts shortly after the still images (0:14)
On the 19th of December 2016, there has been an attack on the people of Berlin, as they were visiting the Christmas market, which is a common pastime in the season locally. Twelve people were killed and 56 injured. The attack was carried out in a way that was not foreseen and was not part of a security concept before. The terrorists had hijacked trucks and driven them toward the Christmas market grounds and into the crowd with the objective to harm or kill as many civilians as possible.
Afterward, such markets were canceled and later it became a practice to use boulders and stone as part of the security concept to block terror trucks from entering the fairgrounds. While this worked, it was not a very practical solution and could not easily scale and be adopted by communities with less security budget. A new solution for such a barrier was wanted and the following criteria had to be considered.
Criteria for a truck stop solution
- Robust
- Flexible to use in row and column
- Easy to move even when already set up
- Can be chained endlessly
- Can be set up without using machines
- Easy to store
- Easy to transport
- Should not look alarming
- Affordable
Together with the support of communities, event companies, police, and the ministry of home affairs, Herne Protect designed a solution that would be a suitable candidate to match these criteria. They built a product called “Herne Truck Sperre”, which is simply German for Herne truck barrier, and tested it thoroughly so that it could effectively stop trucks at full speed before they could harm people.
On their website, Herne clearly explains that there are many possible attack vectors to be exploited by terrorists, but since a vehicle barrier has become a standard for public events in many communities, the lack of standards is however a challenge that they hope to address with their solution. A single modular unit has a list price of 710 EUR (approx. 688,79 USD).
YouTube: Herne Truck Sperre – Übersicht (promotional overview clip in German)
Photo credit: The demonstration media shown was provided to us by Herne Protect with permission to be used. One photo was taken by the author, as indicated beneath the photo in the article.
