A truck driver says that he was attacked and “almost died” after he tried to protect a female truck driver during a disagreement about taking too long at the fuel pumps at a Love’s truck stop in Oklahoma City this week.
The incident took place around 4 a.m. on Sunday, June 17, at the Love’s truck stop off of I-35, according to News9.
According to the report, Texas-based truck driver Rocky Terven says that he pulled into the fuel pumps at the same time as an unnamed female truck driver. Both Terven and the female driver walked into the store. Moments later, Terven says that another truck driver began to verbally assault the female driver about taking too long at the pumps.
Terven described the scene: “He comes in yelling that he has been back there for 45 minutes, waiting. We tried to explain to him we have only been here for five minutes. He got smart with her and that’s when I said something, ‘You are not going to disrespect a woman right there in front of me.’ … He said I got something for you. He went back to his truck and came back inside and swung a knife on me. He missed the first time. I swung, I connected with him, and the he swung again and caught me.”
Remarkably, even though he was stabbed in the armpit area during the encounter, Terven refused medical treatment until he spoke to his company: “That’s over a quarter of a million dollars’ worth of stuff in the back of that trailer that is my responsibility. That’s all I was worried about was my responsibility.”
When Terven finally went to the hospital, he says that doctors found a small amount of blood in his lungs, but he is expected to be okay. He says that he will need to take some time off work to recover.
No arrests have been made, but Terven describes his attacker as “Black, maybe a little facial hair, short hair, kinda [sic] dark skin. He had all dark clothes on that day. I know he drove for TNI trucking company.”