According to Kent Online, who reported on last Thursday’s hearing at Canterbury Crown Court, the incident occured on Friday, May 20th of this year.
The report states that the lorry driver guilty of the attack, French national Anthony Chiri, arrived at Ashford International truckstop at around 11pm. While in a cafe at the truckstop, Mr Chiri is then said to have confronted fellow drivers who were watching football on the TV.
That sparked a row in which the French national was pushed over. Prosecutor Paul Edwards is quoted as saying Mr Chiri then lay in wait under a trailer armed with a blade.
“After more than a minute the defendant came out and charged towards (one driver) and Geoffrey Telliez saying ‘I’m going to put it in you,’” said Edwards, as quoted by Kent Online.
The prosecutor added:
“Mr Telliez reached into the cab of his lorry and grabbed a jack which he was hoping to use to defend himself, but as he turned around, the defendant stabbed him in the right shoulder with the knife.”
The court heard that the stab wound went straight through Mr Telliez’s shoulder. Mr Chiri then stabbed Mr Telliez again in his shoulder and arm.
Before running for security, Mr Telliez managed to block further attacks from Mr Chiri, who is said to targeted his stomach and back.
It didn’t end there either, as when another driver, Mr Elvis Flahaut, confronted Mr Chiri, the latter grabbed Mr Telliez’s jack and swung it at Mr Flahaut’s jaw – knocking him to the ground.
Mr Chiri then attacked Mr Flahaut with his fists and stabbed him in the arm.
As the Kent Online report explains, Mr Chiri’s victims both required emergency treatment for their injuries. Mr Telliez had an entrance and exit wound on his shoulder, as well as a chin injury. Mr Flahuat, meanwhile, suffered a wounded elbow that required 56 stitches.
After pleading guilty to the attacks, Mr Chiri, who has no fixed address, was sentenced to eleven-and-a-half years in prison.
Unfortunately, shocking incidents such as these are becoming more visible in lorry parks across Europe, particularly at weekends.
Trans.INFO has been recording news of these disturbing incidents since spring 2021, as you can see in the table below.
Serious rest stop incidents in Europe that have occured between lorry drivers since May 2021
| Where and when | What happened |
| Germany, May 2021 | A lorry driver from Ukraine was stabbed after a fight broke out between himself and his drunk compatriot. Fortunately, two other truckers, also Ukrainians, came to the man’s defence and the injuries he received were not life threatening. |
| Austria, May 2021 | Two lorry drivers were arrested after injuring each other during an ugly fight at a Tyrol rest area that escalated to the point a hammer and a knife were used. |
| Denmark, October 2021 | An argument between drivers from Russia and Ukraine at a lorry park led to one driver being stabbed in the chest and had to be taken to accident and emergency. |
| England, October 2021 | A lorry driver died after ’an altercation’ at a lorry park in England near Felixstowe port. Admittedly, at the time the original report surfaced, the cause of death was unknown. Therefore it isn’t certain that the so-called altercation was the direct cause. |
| Austria, December 2021 | A fight took place among drivers from Ukraine who had been drinking heavily. A kitchen knife was used and two of the truckers had to be taken to hospital for treatment of “big cuts”. According to reports in the Austrian press, the fight broke out in a rest area in Angath near the border with Germany. |
| Germany, December 2021 | A lorry driver was killed at the Lehrte restop near Hanover after being run over in the aftermath of a heated argument with a colleague. The police nonetheless believed that it was not the intention of the driver, who had smelled of alcohol, to run over his colleague. |
| Austria, January 2022 | A Romanian driver was strangled and threatened with a knife by his colleague and fellow-countryman while the duo were spending their rest time at a parking area on the A2 motorway by the Ilz junction. |
| Germany, March 2022 | A fight between two lorry drivers escalates as one stabs the other on multiple occasions, leaving the victim with serious injuries. |
| Germany, April 2022 | At a rest area on the A45 near Hanau, a lorry driver stabbed another truck driver, causing the latter to be hospitalised. Both had been drinking beforehand. |
| Germany, April 2022 | A lorry driver who was under the influence of alcohol stabbed another several times after an argument escalated into a violent fight. The attacker tried to flee in his vehicle but was prevented from doing so by other truckers, who blocked the exit of the rest area near Würzburg. |
| Germany, April 2022 | Two lorry drivers agreed to a fist fight, only for one to later pull a knife on the other. The incident occured by the A8 near Nellingen. |
| England, May 2022 | A fight breaks out at a cafe at Ashford International truckstop during which one lorry driver attacked two others with a knife. The attacker was handed an 11.5-year prison sentence in December of the same year. |
| Italy, June 2022 | An argument between two drivers about how much alcohol they had consumed escalated, resulting in one stabbing the other. |
| Germany, August 2022 | An argument between a Ukrainian and Belarusian driver leads to a serious fight that sees both drivers held in custody by the police. |
| Germany, October 2022 | A 50-year-old truck driver stabs one of his colleagues at a motorway service area near Munich. |
| Germany, November 2022 | A quarrel between drivers from Ukraine and Russia, which concerned the former playing music loudly in his cab, escalated to the point a knife and hammer used. Both men had been drinking beforehand at “Goldene Bremm” rest area near Saarbrücken. |
| Germany, November 2022 | A drunk truck driver rioted at a rest area on the B 49 near Merenberg in the Limburg-Weilburg district, kicking and hitting trucks. |
Photo: Google Street View