I-80 Truckers Fight

[Smokeeater]

Well I don't know that this is amusing, though it is factual. I guess it may have been entertaining to watch I suppose !

Arkansas man faces charges in stabbing

Truckers fight on I-80
By JEFF GEARINO - Southwest Wyoming bureau | Posted: Saturday, December 25, 2010 1:30 am

GREEN RIVER -- A side-swiping semitrailer and some smack talk on the citizens band radio led to the stabbing of a truck driver and the arrest of an Arkansas man last weekend, according to Swee****er County authorities.

Sheriff Rich Haskell said Larry W. Sevinsky, 42, of Harrison, Ark., was arrested Sunday on Interstate 80 and charged with aggravated assault and battery.

Haskell said deputies were dispatched to a site about 20 miles east of Rock Springs around 1 p.m. after a report of a stabbing. Officers arrived to find a group of men standing near five tractor-trailer rigs parked along I-80. One of the men, 45-year old Russell Leroy Long, was bleeding from a stab wound to his left side.

Witnesses told deputies that Long and two other drivers were convoying three trucks to Texas as they drove through southwest Wyoming Sunday.

The group was traveling eastbound on I-80 when Sevinsky's rig allegedly swerved in front of the lead truck and cut him off. Witnesses said the trucks side-swiped each other as they traveled down the interstate.

Haskell said an argument over CB radios in the rigs ensued as the convoy continued east. The sheriff said Sevinsky and Long apparently pulled their rigs over and got out on foot to confront each other.

Not long afterward, Long said on the radio he had been stabbed and his assailant had fled the scene.

Long told authorities he and Sevinsky pulled over on the shoulder, got out of their trucks and that Sevinsky approached him on the driver's side of the trailer with his hands clenched in a fist.

Long assumed he was going to get into a fist fight, he told deputies.

Long alleged that Sevinsky punched his knife-wielding right hand at him. Long said he tried to block it with his left hand, but Sevinsky got under his hand and stabbed him in the side.

Haskell said two folding knives were recovered from Sevinsky's rig and secured as evidence.

Sevinsky told deputies upon his arrest that Long had tried to punch him with his right fist. Sevinsky said that he ducked the punch and used his shoulder to knock Long to the ground, and that's when Long started yelling he'd been stabbed.

Deputies said Sevinsky claimed that he and the driver of another truck in the convoy side-swiped each other. Sevinsky said he pulled over to report the wreck and that's when Long and the two other trucks stopped.

Long was transported by ambulance to Memorial Hospital of Swee****er County in Rock Springs, where he was treated for the non-life-threatening wound and released.

Sevinsky was later arrested and transported to the Swee****er County Detention Center without incident. He appeared in Circuit Court in Rock Springs Monday.

Judge Dan Forgey set his bond at $25,000 cash or surety. Sevinsky was in custody as of Friday.

Haskell said aggravated assault and battery is a felony and carries a maximum penalty of 10 years imprisonment and/or a $10,000 fine.

[4roses]

Now this is an embarrassment to the Trucking business ~

"" The group was traveling eastbound on I-80 when Sevinsky's rig allegedly swerved in front of the lead truck and cut him off. Witnesses said the trucks side-swiped each other as they traveled down the interstate.

Haskell said an argument over CB radios in the rigs ensued as the convoy continued east. The sheriff said Sevinsky and Long apparently pulled their rigs over and got out on foot to confront each other.""

We've all driven in a convoy at some point in time .... but I never heard anyone get mad on the CB because someone else wanted to take the front door for a while ............ I'd say this is a clear case of to much testosterone
.... dang it's hard enough on the road sometimes ... to have to put up with this kind of stupidity .... one more mark for the other working class to put Truckers down ... shameful. Just glad no one was seriously hurt.

[1-Up trucker]

and this kind of crap is why john q public doesnt listen to us let alone respect us

[scrubs147]

Never drove in a convoy and never will. Simply don't trust other truck drivers that much. Don't listen to the CB and never will (except for traffic jambs and bad weather). Truck drivers don't have anything that interesting to say where the CB takes presidency over my satellite radio.

[GMAN]

I have been in a lot of convoys. I have never heard anyone who would fight to be the front door. In fact, I never minded if someone wants to get in the lead. I never considered 3 rigs as a convoy. When we did them we would usually have more. Speaking of convoy, I saw the movie "CONVOY" a few days ago. It brought back a lot of memories. If any of you want to see how things were back in the 70's you might check it out. Of course, it was exagerated, but it did show the commeraderie we had back then. I have never been in that big of a convoy before. Most of them would have been perhaps 10-20 trucks. You pick up a few and lose some along the way. You could have some interesting conversations. It was much different than what we hear today. People were not as distracted driving. We didn't have cell phones or GPS.

[Windwalker]

It isn't the "convoy" that causes the problems. And, it doesn't have to have any convoy involved.

Some years back, along I-80 in Indiana, a couple of CB Rambos were going at it and another driver that had nothing to do with it, didn't even have a CB in the truck, stopped at the side because of a "dry tire". North American stopped behind him, stepped out and went to the right side of the trucks, then shot the first driver with a 9MM. The first driver was flown to a hospital with a chopper, and North American nearly made it into Ohio before Indiana caught up with him.

In WY, it could have been a driver that should have been sleeping off the fatigue that did the side-swiping. Tempers flared and it went on from there. Chances are, any driver, convoy or not, CB or not, that might have pulled over would have found himself at the receiving end. Now, I don't know about the driver that got stabbed, but the driver that did the stabbing will never drive a truck again. What a way to kill a career. Hope he doesn't have a family to support because this won't help him get a job at Mickey D's either.

I've been in more than one "convoy". I never considered three trucks as a convoy. More like 20 or 30. Going across Ohio, one night, we must have had some 50 trucks in line. No one was following too close, no one was speeding, and there were no CB Rambos on that night. Pretty amazing how fast a slow state can go by. My side of the argument was "Women don't have a sex-drive, or even know what it is", and her side was "OH, YES WE DO!!! (once in every two months) The rest were just following along and listening in, or keying the mic and only able to laugh. I didn't realize how many trucks there were until I got to my exit and said good bye. I was nearly two miles off the interstate before the return "good byes" finally ended. It was as if half the state of Ohio was listening to her and I argue. But, there were no harsh words and no ill will involved.

It's not the convoy that's the problem. It's the mentality of the drivers and the words that are exchanged that cause the problems. And, it can be only two trucks. But, when it hits the news, it's only one driver that gives the whole industry a black eye.

[Orangetxguy]

Back in the late 70's through the mid 80's I participated in a lot of convoys. All over the country. Only convoy I was evr in that had anything remarkable occur, was when we were cutting through the hills between Riverside Cali and Beaumont Cali on Hiway 60 (2-lane road then). Up on top of one of the hills, we came upon a Mercedes sedan that had the back-end sticking out onto the pavement. Everyone stopped (17 trucks in all), and the lady driving the car was so happy. She had a flat tire and no jack....and of course...she was a "lady". And she truly was! It was Dolores Hope....wife of Bob. Mrs. Hope and her lady friend sat in the supervisor's pick up, enjoying a cup of hot coffee from one of many thermoses, while we got the car on the road and the tire changed.

We pulled a handyman jack from the supervisor's pickup, got the car fully back on the road, changed her flat...and said our goodbyes. Her "mobile phone" did not have service in the hills!! Neither did our Motorola radios, except for truck to truck.

When we got back from El Centro a week later....a dinner invitation was waiting for all of us....from "Bob and Dolores". That was all the card said. Had the two clerks and some managers wondering who they were, and why a crew was invited to dinner. August 1983.