Yet another truck driver has been shot — and this one killed — in what has become a violent period of several months for truckers.
The car and truck of two men involved in a road rage incident in Nashville. (Nashville Metro Police photo)Metro Nashville Police tweeted Friday, Nov. 30 that a trucker was shot to death on southbound Interstate 65 in what they called an “apparent road rage incident.” While no charges were filed immediately with police citing self-defense, authorities reportedly continue to investigate the incident that took place between 5:05 p.m. and 5:17 p.m.
Police said a confrontation ensued when 28-year-old Eric Nichols, of Columbia, Tennessee tried to merge onto I-65 in front of a tractor-trailer driven by 53-year-old Christopher Jankowski, of Christiana, Tennessee. Nichols is said to have stopped his car on the shoulder and Jankowski stopped his truck behind it.
The two reportedly got in a fight and a pistol fell from the waistband of Nichols’ pants. Both men went for the gun and Nichols fired one shot, which struck Jankowski.
Police want to speak with any motorist who may have seen the altercation between Nichols and Jankowksi. Witnesses are asked to call the Midtown Hills Precinct investigation department at 615-880-1511.
In another road rage incident related to merging onto an interstate, this one on I-90 in Montana, a 27-year-man was arrested for pointing a pistol at a trucker.
On Nov. 28 Cole Aaron Smith brandished a pistol at an unidentified trucker because he would not move over do Smth could merge onto I-90. The trucker told police he was unable to move over because of traffic, according to the Boseman Daily Chronicle.
Police recovered a loaded .45 caliber handgun from Smith’s car. He was charged with assault with a weapon.
These are the latest incidences of violence involving truckers. Others include:
- Last month a trucker was shot in Alabama while a driver shot at the vehicle of another motorist in Texas
- One trucker attacked another over a parking spot in Florida
- In September two truckers were involved in a shooting in Georgia
- Road rage was to blame for a shooting that left a trucker dead in Dallas in February
- In January, a man shot at truckers and police in Iowa
- A trucker was severely beaten in an attempted robbery in Idaho in September
- Police continue to investigate the death of a woman trucker in Louisiana
BREAKING: Apparent road rage incident turns deadly on I-65 south btwn the Harding Pl & Old Hickory Blvd exits. The drivers of the white car & tractor trailer pulled over & had altercation on grass shoulder. Truck driver was shot to death. Car driver being questioned. pic.twitter.com/YYXCJG6of9
— Metro Nashville PD (@MNPDNashville) December 1, 2018
