Drivers in New Year’s Day fatal car incidents had no red flags when renting, says Turo CEO

(CNN) — After separate deadly New Year’s Day incidents in New Orleans and Las Vegas involving vehicles from Turo, the company’s CEO on Friday said there were no “red flags” about the drivers who used the peer-to-peer car-sharing service.

In an interview with CNBC, CEO Andre Haddad said the alleged attacker in New Orleans and the driver of a Cybertruck that was blown up by explosives outside Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas were decorated members of the military. The company, which says it runs background checks on its customers, had previously confirmed before they rented the cars that both drivers had a valid driver’s license, and one was honorably discharged.

The car rental platform ingests more than 50 data points into its algorithms, Haddad explained. That includes characteristics of Turo users from vehicle horsepower to details about renters and where the rental car is located and when the car was booked. The data is used to compile risk scores for Turo users, according to a Friday statement.

“That has been the anchor of our very strong safety track record over the last four years,” Haddad said in the interview.

He said the company’s focus has been on dealing with the aftermath of the attacks and cooperating with law enforcement to assist with the investigations. He added that there hasn’t been much impact on the company in the last two days but said his focus has been more on the investigation.

Haddad said the company feels its track record is strong in terms of trust and safety.

“How can we get even better? We want to do everything in our power to help contribute to reducing such horrific acts in the future,” he said.

Turo said in a news release Friday that it has “facilitated 27 million trips, over 90 million booked days, spanning 8.6 billion miles driven, through 12 years of operating history, and less than 0.10% of Turo trips have ended with a serious incident, such as a vehicle theft.”

Turo says it had 350,000 active vehicle listings and 3.5 million “guest” renters on the platform across five countries as of the end of September, according to a securities filing for its planned IPO.

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CNN’s Clare Duffy contributed to this report.