A tanker driver was attacked and beaten by another trucker while attempting to deliver fuel at a truck stop in Utah on Thursday.
The altercation occurred on January 21st at the Golden Spike Travel Plaza in Tremonton.
According to The Standard-Examiner, the unnamed tanker driver was attempting to deliver fuel to the truck stop when another semi truck blocked the gas tanks, preventing him from delivering the fuel and completing the job.
The tanker driver claims he asked the other driver, Danny Jerome Johnson, to move his rig, but Johnson became “belligerent.” Witnesses say the two began shouting at each other. The tanker driver claims that Johnson then grabbed a sharp-edged pipe from off the steps of his truck cab and struck the tanker driver multiple times with the object, hitting him on the neck and head. Witnesses say they saw the attack and yelled for Johnson to stop.
Immediately after the attack, Johnson returned to his semi truck and fled the scene, heading west on Interstate 84. When officers stopped the rig, Johnson denied having stopped in Tremonton. It was only after officers discovered a bloody, sharp pipe in his cab that Johnson admitted to having been in an altercation.
“He claimed that he may have hit the victim with the pipe as the other individual was swinging at him with his elbow,” police said in the affidavit.
The tanker driver suffered cuts on his neck, head, and left hand, as well as swelling on the left side of his head.
35-year-old Johnson has since been booked in the Box Elder County Jail on suspicion of third-degree felony aggravated assault.