AURORA, Colo. - A violent attack on an Aurora trucker leaves him battered and bruised. And his company leaves him high and dry.
"Oh, baby. I'm so sorry," says Deanna Guthrie as her husband, Danny, pulls into the TA Travel Center off I-70 and Quebec.
A day of driving turned dangerous in Debeque when he stopped to eat Saturday.
"A gentleman walked up to me and asked if I was driving that truck, pointed to my truck. As soon as I said, 'Yeah, I am,' he punched me in the mouth. And then, threw me in a snow bank and started kicking me and broke my right arm," says Danny.
He doesn't know why he was targeted. He says nothing out of the ordinary happened en route to California.
"I don't know if I cut anyone off or what," he wonders out loud.
But he suspects he must have angered the man who beat him.
"We deal with a lot of road rage on a daily basis. It's something we have to forget about," he says.
It's road rage captured on camera by a driver in Australia. An enraged man in a white car twice swerves in front of a semi and stops in its path. He then cusses at the trucker to get out. And when he doesn't, he kicks the truck.
"These guys are constantly being mugged, assaulted, their freight being stolen," says a shaken Deanna.
She says it's difficult each time her husband takes to the road. She must face the reality that driving big rigs can mean big risks.
"When Danny goes to California, I don't know if it's going to be his last time. This was the closest call to being worst case scenario for our family-- being that he was dead," says Deanna.
She says Danny's employer, S&T Livestock, didn't help to get him home.
"One of the worst things that could have happened to their employee happened. Danny was abandoned. He was abandoned at the hospital. He had to find his own way home. And to me that's unheard of. It's unheard of," she says.
So Danny's friend had to drive him 262 miles from Fruita to meet Deanna who then drove him to the hospital for surgery.
"I feel very fortunate just having surgery on my arm. It could have gone a lot worse," says Danny.
Guthrie says the man who assaulted him was white, in his 30's, about 6-feet, 200- pounds, with tattoos all over his arms. He was wearing a stocking cap--possibly green. He jumped into a white car--possibly a BMW.
The U.S. Marshall's Office in Grand Junction is investigating.
.
"Oh, baby. I'm so sorry," says Deanna Guthrie as her husband, Danny, pulls into the TA Travel Center off I-70 and Quebec.
A day of driving turned dangerous in Debeque when he stopped to eat Saturday.
"A gentleman walked up to me and asked if I was driving that truck, pointed to my truck. As soon as I said, 'Yeah, I am,' he punched me in the mouth. And then, threw me in a snow bank and started kicking me and broke my right arm," says Danny.
He doesn't know why he was targeted. He says nothing out of the ordinary happened en route to California.
"I don't know if I cut anyone off or what," he wonders out loud.
But he suspects he must have angered the man who beat him.
"We deal with a lot of road rage on a daily basis. It's something we have to forget about," he says.
It's road rage captured on camera by a driver in Australia. An enraged man in a white car twice swerves in front of a semi and stops in its path. He then cusses at the trucker to get out. And when he doesn't, he kicks the truck.
"These guys are constantly being mugged, assaulted, their freight being stolen," says a shaken Deanna.
She says it's difficult each time her husband takes to the road. She must face the reality that driving big rigs can mean big risks.
"When Danny goes to California, I don't know if it's going to be his last time. This was the closest call to being worst case scenario for our family-- being that he was dead," says Deanna.
She says Danny's employer, S&T Livestock, didn't help to get him home.
"One of the worst things that could have happened to their employee happened. Danny was abandoned. He was abandoned at the hospital. He had to find his own way home. And to me that's unheard of. It's unheard of," she says.
So Danny's friend had to drive him 262 miles from Fruita to meet Deanna who then drove him to the hospital for surgery.
"I feel very fortunate just having surgery on my arm. It could have gone a lot worse," says Danny.
Guthrie says the man who assaulted him was white, in his 30's, about 6-feet, 200- pounds, with tattoos all over his arms. He was wearing a stocking cap--possibly green. He jumped into a white car--possibly a BMW.
The U.S. Marshall's Office in Grand Junction is investigating.
.
