The parents of a New Jersey man killed in a 2017 rental truck terrorist attack in Manhattan say the law honoring their son should be updated to prevent terrorists from using Turo and similar ride-sharing apps as they did this week in New Orleans and Las Vegas.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security was asked to prepare a report outlining strategies to help prevent vehicular terrorist attacks as part of the “Darren Drake Act,” named after a 32-year-old who was among the eight who were pinned and killed by a truck rented from Home Depot. Terrorist Sayfullo Saipov drove into the bike path in the Halloween attack along the West Side Expressway.
The law, sponsored by Rep. Josh Gottheimer (D.N.J.), requires the Department of Homeland Security to draft a “best practices” list for car and truck rental companies to report suspicious behavior by renters to law enforcement to help prevent vehicles from being used as weapons for terrorists. Total destruction.
But the law fails to directly address car-sharing apps like Turo, which act as an intermediary like AirBnb by allowing users to rent vehicles from hosts registered on the site.
Turo is under scrutiny because the two vehicles used in the deadly New Year's Day terrorist attacks in Las Vegas and New Orleans were rented on its platform.
Both Jimmy and Barbara Drake praised Gottheimer for sponsoring the bill, but they told The Post that DHS should crack down on companies like Toro — and called for revised or new legislation that would require it.
“Clearly this bill could use a little updating,” Jimmy Drake said. “Until these incidents in Vegas and New Orleans, we all had high aspirations to get the bill blocked [terrorists] Who killed people by car?
“The law must cover all aspects because [terrorists] “Going around all the corners, so it shouldn't just be about the rental agencies, it's about all aspects,” his wife said.
Gottheimer told The Post that he reached out to the Department of Homeland Security “to ensure that they immediately inform Turo and all rental car companies of the actions they must take to stop terrorist trucks.”
Without providing details, the politician said he was working on new legislation that “goes further to provide more tools to prevent these heinous terrorist attacks” and “prevent lone terrorists from using terrorist trucks as weapons of destruction.”
His office did not provide a copy of the DHS report, saying it was marked “for official use only.”
Darren Drake was a project manager at Moody's Investors Service on the World Trade Center.
The New Milford, New Jersey, resident had recently lost 93 pounds after undergoing laparoscopic surgery and was out for a bike ride between meetings when he was struck and killed by a truck.
A Turo spokesperson said the company “does not believe that any of the tenants” in the New Year's Day attacks “had a criminal background that would identify them as a security threat, and we are not currently aware of any information pointing to either incident.” linked.”
DHS did not return messages.
