As reported by Saarland Radio, a shocking incident occurred on Sunday at the “Goldene Bremm” rest area near Saarbrücken.
According to the report, 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.
It is said that the Ukrainian trucker, aged 36, angered his 41-year-old Russian counterpart with the volume of the music coming from his cab. Both men had been drinking before the dispute began.
The Russian driver is said to have lashed out at the Ukrainian before retiring to his cab. The Ukrainian then followed the Russian to his cab and stabbed his hand with a knife. In response, the Russian lobbed a hammer towards the Ukrainian’s cab, only for it fly through the vehicle’s open windows and smash into a Porsche parked nearby.
The police are investigating both drivers for dangerous bodily harm.
Unfortunately, the aforementioned altercation was not the only disturbing lorry park incident reported in Germany over the weekend.
Hit Radio FF reports that on Saturday afternoon, a drunk truck driver “rioted at a rest area on the B 49 near Merenberg in the Limburg-Weilburg district”.
The police report cited by the radio station states several patrols “had found a hopelessly drunk truck driver who wanted to hit other men and had hit and kicked other trucks.”
The 31-year-old truck driver was given a breathalyser test and was so intoxicated he was found to have more alcohol in his blood than could be measured with the device. At the very least, the indicated score showed the lorry driver was ten times over the drink-drive limit.
The driver was arrested and held in police custody until he had sobered up.
Meanwhile, out on the open road itself, another bizarre but equally disturbing incident was reported on Germany’s A1 motorway on Sunday.
As Spiegel writes, a drunk truck driver crashed his lorry into the barrier between the A1’s Primstal and Hasborn junctions.
According to an official report by Sankt Wendel Police Inspectorate, officers were amazed when they arrived at the scene of the accident.
The truck driver, who was spotted sitting in front of his cab, had stripped naked after the accident and used his vehicle’s open engine compartment as a drying rack for his clothes.
The report also notes that the driver was aggressive towards both police officers and paramedics, and even had to be restrained after lashing out at emergency service staff.
He too was arrested and held in custody until he had sobered up. In addition, the lorry driver’s license was seized and he will now face multiple criminal charges.
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. |
| 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: Rossano, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons (image cropped)
