According to the police, the lorry drivers involved in the fight were from Ukraine and Belarus. The Ukrainian will face manslaughter charges and was taken into custody. The Belarusian has also been held in custody over dangerous bodily harm charges. Both drivers appeared in court on Sunday and Monday in relation to the charges.
The police report states that the 33-year-old Belarusian national is said to have inflicted a serious injury on his 50-year-old Ukrainian counterpart, who was punched in the neck.
When the police arrived, officers saw both drivers scrapping it out in a ditch, with the 50-year-old Ukrainian seen violently choking the younger Belarusian. The Bavarian police add that had it not been for their intervention, the outcome of the fight could have been even more serious.
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, July 2022 | An argument between a Ukrainian and Belarusian driver leads to a serious fight that sees both drivers held in custody by the police. |