ORLANDO, Fla. — The suspected acts of terrorism on New Year’s Day in the New Orleans French Quarter have sparked discussions about safety measures.

What You Need To Know

  • A U.S Army veteran rammed his pickup truck into a crowd on New Orleans’ French Quarter, killing 15 people and leaving dozens injured

  • The FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism

  • One former federal agent says mass casualty attacks like these are increasingly common during the holidays

  • Dave Benson says there are precautions both people and cities alike should take to better protect event-goers at mass events

Central Florida based security consultant and retired federal agent Dave Benson says these types of attacks are unfortunately a reality of the world we live in.

However, Benson says this shouldn’t prevent people from living their lives.

Instead, he says it all comes down to being mindful and having a personal safety plan for yourself and your loved ones when attending mass events.

Benson says though these types of attacks are cyclical, they are definitely more common during the holidays, as seen with the attack on a busy Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg less than two weeks ago, as well as the deadly downtown Orlando shooting on Halloween last year.

Orange Avenue in downtown was normally closed to traffic on weekends and open to pedestrians to walk along as they went from one bar to another.

Since the shooting, Orlando leaders and law enforcement began adding barriers along Orange Avenue to keep pedestrians on the sidewalk, and move away from a street-party atmosphere.

Benson said those types of effort help to mitigate the risks for threats in crowded areas, but that there are more precautions that cities can take to protect people from mass casualty events like these.

“Barricades, they provide some deterrent, but they’re not gonna stop a vehicle. They’re not gonna stop an attack like this, so you need barriers, whether it be like concrete barriers or portable barriers that actually pop up and you can move them around,” Benson said.

“It isn’t always pretty but you have to get creative. And sadly, nowadays, we’ve had enough of these events that we have as part of our security plan — we’ve got to find a way to control access egress and then what happens once the event takes place,” he expressed.

Other tips he has for people who find themselves in a situation like this: Do not move with the crowd, instead try moving to the sides and working around the crowd to avoid getting caught in a stampede.

Benson says it’s also helpful to identify a safety exit in advance for yourself and your group at the start of the event.

As the city of Orlando prepares to host the NFL Pro Bowl games on Feb. 2 at Camping World stadium, Benson says there are ways to structure crowds in emergency situations to keep people safe.

“What you really need are concentric circles of security,” he said. “An outer ring, then a middle ring and then an inner ring where actually everybody has ended up that’s going to be going to the game. So I would look for that outer perimeter to really be strengthened so to kind of do what you can to mitigate the possibility that we could have a vehicle or vehicles crash into the outer perimeter.”

Benson says car attacks like these usually depend on what’s happening in the world. While devastating to see, he said it’s not surprising to see in a post-election season.

He also strongly encourages people to keep using the ‘see something, say something’ tactic whenever suspicious behavior or activities arise.