TfL ‘must raise game’ to protect against terrorism

An inquest has heard that Transport for London (TfL) must ‘raise its game’ to protect people from the threat of terrorism in the wake of the Westminster Bridge attack. Siwan Hayward, TfL’s head of transport policing, told an inquest into their deaths that, despite vehicular attacks on the continent, the risk of a vehicle being used as a weapon to target pedestrians on the city’s bridges had not been appreciated at the time. For example, despite the attacks in Nice and Berlin, there were no security barriers in place on Westminster Bridge, for which TfL has responsibility as the highway authority. In fact, barriers were still not in place on London Bridge by 3 June 2017 when a second terrorist attack involving a vehicle was carried out. Although TfL maintains that it is ‘proactively’ working to consider protective security more seriously, Gareth Patterson QC, for some of the families of Masood’s victims, said there are still crowded places, such as Oxford Street, where pedestrians could be targeted.