Truckers fear of the raid
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Truckers' fear of the raid
By Nikolaus Doll | Published on 27.12.2016 | N24/Die World
After the attack on the Berlin Christmas market, freight forwarders warn of unsafe trucks. Drivers are often victims of violent attacks. Getting a truck under his control is no problem.
Polish long-distance driver Lukasz U. was good in time - too good. This was to cost him his life on Monday last week and turn his truck into a weapon that killed eleven people and injured more than 50 at the Christmas market on Breitscheidplatz in Berlin.
When the 37-year-old reaches the destination of his tour around 9 a.m. on December 19, the ThyssenKrupp branch on the Friedrich-Krause-Ufer in Berlin's Moabit district, he is rejected. It is too early, the goods can not be unloaded, it is said. U. should return the next day.
The truck driver, who is supposed to continue to Denmark after the station in Berlin, has lost a whole day. That alone is annoying. Like many of his colleagues, U. will be under permanent time pressure. But what's worse: The trucker has idle in the next 24 hours and no retreat other than the cabin of his standing semi-trailer. Truck drivers fear this situation.
Because often they become victims of thefts or raids exactly then. "A lot of drivers are scared. Even parking spaces on the motorways on which the colleagues stop are often lawless spaces, "says Karlheinz Schmidt, Managing Director of the Federal Association of Road Haulage and Logistics (BGL). Especially at night, the truckers for potential perpetrators lay like on the presentation plate. "The possibilities to protect yourself against thefts and robberies are far from sufficient," Schmidt.
The industry has been complaining about rising crime for years
Lukasz U. does not even have a designated rest area where he can park his truck and where he is in the company of other truck drivers. After the employees of ThyssenKrupp had put him off, he steers his semi-trailer to a nearby parking space on the south bank of the canal between the west and north ports. At some point between 15.30 and 19.30 o'clock, according to the current state of knowledge, the alleged assassin Anis Amri or possible accomplice then bring Lukasz U. and his truck into their power.
Should U. have resisted from the beginning, he was alone and without help. Should he have sought protection in the cabin of his semi-trailer, it offered him none - like many other long-distance drivers. "It's really not difficult to seize such a truck," says Karlheinz Schmidt.
The industry, not just the BGL, has been complaining for years about rising crime against long-distance drivers. "We have been drawing attention to this issue for a long time. We even handed over a petition with more than 20,000 signatures to the Bundestag together with the police to make parking spaces safer. But nothing is happening, "says Karlheinz Schmidt. Since 2000, the number of reported thefts and attacks would increase significantly.
Cheap knockout gas from Eastern Europe
The list of various offences is long. Hum drivers report that the tarpaulins of the trailers are slashed and goods stolen. That litres of diesel is diverted. "The thieves have not bothered to suck up the fuel for a long time. They just punch a hole in the tank and drain the diesel. The perpetrators even come with vans to get the fuel away, "says an industry expert. Up to 1400 liters of diesel has a semi-trailer on board, so the claw is worth it.
The fact that refugees jump on the trucks to reach their destination illegally sounds comparatively harmless at first. But if the truck is stopped and searched by the police, and if blind passengers are found, the trucker is initially suspected of being a smuggler - an accusation that he must refute.
But now more and more often the drivers themselves are the target of the perpetrators. "We know of cases where colleagues were threatened and robbed," reports Karlheinz Schmidt. "Other perpetrators strike when the drivers are asleep. They direct knockout gas into the driver's cabs and break the door open when the driver is stunned.
The gas is cheap to procure in Eastern Europe, and against attacks like these, even iron rods are of no use, with which the colleagues protect their cabins against intrusion, "says Schmidt. The drivers then wake up with a thick head and all belongings are gone. "Some people don't have more to do than their underwear."
"The police presence is absolutely ridiculous"
The kidnapping of trucks and drivers has already been reported by freight forwarders. The perpetrators had successfully tried to bring the entire cargo into their possession. "And all this happens on specially designated rest areas on federal highways," says Schmidt. "We are calling for significantly more checks, more police presence at the rest areas, more patrols."
Industry representatives have been criticizing the conditions on truck parking spaces in Germany for a long time. Not well lit and too small, so that the vehicles would have to stand close and confusing together, is the verdict. It would lack fences that could make it harder for unauthorized people to disappear with their prey over forest paths.
"The police presence is absolutely ridiculous. Hardly any patrol can ever be seen on one of these rest stops, "says Schmidt. Among the hum drivers is the rumor that, for example, in the entire state of Hesse at night only two patrol cars are available for control drives on the motorways.
The A4 is a danger zone
In France, Belgium or the Netherlands, the situation on the rest areas is better, the facilities are larger, partly guarded, Schmidt said. But in these countries the dangers lurk on the routes. "For a while there were so many raids that the forwarders instructed their drivers to stop from the German border to the Rhine estuary ports," Schmidt said.
"Belgium was a source of fire for a certain period of time, as trucks or cargo were regularly lost." In Germany itself, the A4 is a danger zone where attacks are often reported. "Especially on the eastern part of this highway. The perpetrators strike there and disappear across the borders to the Czech Republic or Poland, "Schmidt reports.
But rest facilities offer at least a certain residual safety time. Some light, other truckers close to the call who could serve as helpers or witnesses. Only: Many hum drivers often do not make it to the signposted parking spaces. Since they have to observe rest periods and are severely punished if they drive longer than prescribed, drivers often stop at the next best parking lot on the trunk road or in the cities. "You just have to leave and the truck is gone," says Schmidt.
Most of the large trucks today can be located by their carriers via GPS. But if the unusual downtimes or a deviation of the predetermined route notice, there are hardly any ways to react. As in the case of the Berlin attack.
