@Sucky will be praying the driver was Muslim I don't know what you can do to stop these things from happening though. Obvs at Christmas markets etc, you can bollard off pedestrian areas. But the rest of the time, there's not a lot you can do.
Likelihood of it being an 'accident' look slim, on the back of recent events - probably a 'copy cat' As others have said - very difficult to prevent, unless City centres are completely pedestrianised with security supervised deliveries etc...
I'm going to guess the cost of such events will have to be weighed up against any additional security measures and the likelyhood of them happening again. By cost I mean for all the emergency services to come out, police, doctors, ambulances, then the cost in hospitals, the cost to security services and any entailed in a manhunt of other individuals, the cost of prosecution, the cost of jailing any individuals that are caught alive. Insurance claims. At some point something will have to change, dependent on the regularity of attacks. The costs must already be running into millions if this is the 3rd or 4th attack.
Yeah I hear you, not sure how you mitigate against this sort of thing on a daily basis though. I mean unless you somehow make all built up urban areas where pedestrians walk, somehow separated from traffic But surely that's a civil engineering scheme on an almost impossible level ?
Yeah you're going a bit extreme there bro, I said weighing up the cost of each incident against security measures. That don't mean going the whole hog bro.
Ah okay lol Yeah if it's an organised event, then there's no excuse not to have 100% traffic free zones. It's basically a few lumps of concrete and paying security staff to man entrances and exits.
to be fair i'm sure the busiest streets in germany are still going to be crowded. Hell just look at oxford street or regent street or leicester square or outside any tube station especially during the busier periods (rush hours, lunch, dinner). There is simply no way to stop someone going loco if thats what they want to do. Hell even do a pile up on the motorway or something would be catastrophic enough