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The Mustardseed Truck Stop on Highway 167 in Sumner, Wash., wins little love: "filthy," "disgusting," "overpriced" are but a few of the many scathing reviews offered by truckers reluctantly paying $13 for a 12-hour break on its premises.
It's also a former crime scene, where, on March 8, 2016, 52-year-old Piotr Pietrzykowski was stabbed to death in his white cab. He was driving for Top Line Express, a company founded in 2011 in Schaumburg, Ill.
His violent death, reported only by the local media, remains unsolved more than a year later.
Pietrzykowski's slaying is one of 27 reported driver killings nationwide between 2010 and 2015, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics' data. It also prompted a debate on whether truckers should be allowed to carry guns for protection.
"It's the Wild West. You're on your own," said Norita Taylor, spokeswoman for the Owner Operator Independent Drivers Association, which represents 158,000 members.
Unlike the Wild West, though, where many carried a six-shooter and rarely hesitated to use it in their own defense, today's drivers face a much different and more challenging environment.
https://www.trucks.com/2017/06/12/truckers-guns-taboo-topic/
