The first of these incidents occured in May in Germany. 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.
Then, in late October, a similar incident occurred between drivers from Russia and Ukraine at a lorry park in Denmark. The victim was stabbed in the chest and had to be taken to accident and emergency. Again, fortunately, his life was saved thanks to the work of the paramedics. Police officers arrested 6 individuals in connection with the incident, with the man who attacked his fellow truck driver with a knife set to be charged with attempted murder.
Moreover, in the same month, 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.
All three of those incidents occurred late on a Saturday evening and two of them involved drivers who had drunk a substantial amount of alcohol.
Last Sunday, another alarming incident of a similar nature occurred in a lorry park in the north of Austria. Once again, 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.
“The 43-year-old suffered a deep cut in the area of his right wrist. The 36-year-old, who was only found in his truck by the police officers as part of the investigation, suffered bad bleeding on the back of the head and had a deep cut above his right knee, ” said one officer who was quoted by multiple Austrian news websites.
The man believed to have instigated the knife attack has been arrested by officers. The police continue to investigate the circumstances surrounding the incident.
A worrying trend
Although thousands of truck drivers across Europe stay together in parking facilities and rest stops without a hint of any serious violence occurring, the fact that 4 very serious incidents have occurred in four different countries in just seven months appears to be cause for concern.
Given the circumstances surrounding these examples, could the awful pay and conditions experienced by some 3rd-country drivers be acting as a catalyst for such violent incidents? Following the incident in Denmark, we reached out to Cristina Tilling, Head of Land Transport at the European Transport Workers’ Federation. She told Trans.INFO:
“Truck drivers’ working conditions have depreciated exponentially over the years. Even before the pandemic, the sector was faced with an unprecedented shortage and this, combined with the worsening conditions, led to an increasing number of 3rd country nationals being brought to Europe to fill the gap. The exploitation of 3rd country nationals is even more ruthless since they are more dependent on their jobs and employers. The pandemic added to the insecurity and vulnerability of long haul truck drivers, whether or not they were 3rd country nationals. Being away from families that might have been facing health problems and falling victim to covid did not improve the situation.”
Given that the situation on the market is unlikely to change substantially in the near future, one can only hope that the incidents described in this article are indeed isolated cases that are extremely unlikely to be repeated in the future. However, the more reports of such violent outbreaks there are, the more it will provoke questions about what is fuelling this disturbing trend.
Photo: Tony Webster / Flickr / CC BY 2.0