Sikh truck driver survives stabbing attack in rest stop bathroom
Por Mead Gruver — – World RSS Feed
Sikh truck driver survives stabbing attack in rest stop bathroom
The attack came after deadly crashes involving Sikh truck drivers led to debate about commercial driver’s licensing requirements
Mead Gruver Saturday 19 September 2026 16:12 BST
- Bookmark
Bookmark popover
Removed from bookmarks
Close popover
Your support helps us to tell the story
Read more Support Now
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference. Read more
A violent attack against a truck driver at a rest stop in remote Wyoming has left the Sikh community on edge amid rising anti-immigrant vitriol against the community and its truck drivers in particular.
The Sikh victim was attacked from behind while in a restroom along the Interstate 80 Bitter Creek rest stop, midway between Cheyenne and Salt Lake City, according to court documents.
He suffered stabs to the neck and chest and over a dozen other cuts but survived.
Police were still investigating what prompted the Wyoming attack by a man who left the rest area driving a truck-trailer combination, Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Jeff Sheaman said.
“We have zero motive,” Sheaman said.
While police say the motive is unknown, the attack came after deadly crashes involving Sikh truck drivers led to debate about commercial driver’s licensing requirements — sparking hatred toward Sikhs as a group, community leaders said.
Anti-Sikh sentiment has been especially severe on truck-driving forums, said one Sikh in the trucking industry, Harsimran Singh, CEO of Gillson Trucking in Stockton, California.
“I’ve been here for the last 25-plus years,” Singh said. “I never felt this kind of hate before.”
The victim allegedly told police he was trying to use the restroom when he was attacked from behind. He pushed the attacker, he said, and didn’t see the knife at first, according to the police affidavit filed in the case.
Within hours, police arrested Andrew Kris Bzdak in nearby Carbon County, Wyoming.
A family at the rest area who heard the attack allegedly followed Bzdak’s truck back onto the highway and tipped off police to help find him, according to the affidavit.
Video taken from a truck at the rest area showed the victim walk casually into the restroom, followed by a man police said was Bzdak.
Soon after, Bzdak allegedly was recorded running from the restroom, followed by the stumbling, wounded victim who fell at least once, according to the affidavit.
Bzdak remained jailed on $1 million bond Friday in Rock Springs, on suspicion of attempted murder, a crime punishable in Wyoming by up to life in prison. An initial appearance was scheduled for Thursday.
A phone message left at an address for Bzdak in Catawissa, Pennsylvania, wasn’t immediately returned, nor was a phone message for him at the jail and for his Wyoming public defender, Gary Arnell.
Despite no evident motive, the attack was unnerving for Sikhs, who number around 750,000 in the U.S. Many live in California.
Sikh men wear beards, uncut hair and turbans, and many work as truck drivers. Advocacy groups estimate that at least 150,000 Sikh truck drivers work in the U.S.
In August 2025, authorities said a Sikh truck driver’s U-turn on a Florida turnpike caused a crash that killed three people. The crash prompted investigations as well as reports about Sikh truck drivers being harassed.
Then last October, a Sikh truck driver accused of being under the influence of drugs caused a fiery crash that killed three people, authorities said.
Both drivers were in the U.S. illegally, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which Singh, the trucking CEO, blamed for stirring anti-immigrant hatred with social media posts.
One such post, since taken down, showed a dark-skinned man with a beard that read, “Get off our roads, you don’t know how to drive Mr. Singh.” DHS officials have said the post referred specifically to the driver in the Florida crash. But Sikh community representatives pointed out that a large number of Sikhs — well over 100,000 in the U.S. and millions worldwide — have the last name Singh.
No matter what motivated the attack, the crime is difficult to separate from racism toward Sikhs, said Jasjit Singh, legal services director for the Sikh community group Jakara Movement and a representative of the victim.
“We were making noise about this,” Jasjit Singh said. “That is how the community feels. Until something really bad happens to us, nothing is going to really happen.”
The victim was headed home Friday after five days in a Casper hospital and hopes to drive his truck across Wyoming again, Jasjit Singh said.
But Harsimran Singh, the trucking CEO, also remained apprehensive.
“We are probably going to see more of this,” Harsimran Singh said. “I’m not surprised that it has happened.”
More about
SikhWyomingknife attackstabbingtruckers
Most popular
Popular videos
Bulletin
Read next
Fonte: – World RSS Feed
