Polish Trucker's Death Brings Berlin Tragedy Close to Home
December 21 2016 - 6:02PM
Dow Jones News
By Martin M. Sobczyk and Drew Hinshaw
WARSAW -- Lukasz Urban was so meticulous about the handling of
the Swedish-made semitrailer truck he drove for a living that his
colleagues called him "The Inspector." When its owner saw erratic
movements on its GPS data, he could pinpoint just when something
had gone amiss in Berlin.
A highway veteran with a reputation for reliability, Mr. Urban
had arrived Monday morning -- a day earlier than scheduled -- with
his last delivery: 25 tons of square steel tubes he had transported
to a Thyssenkrupp AG unit warehouse in an industrial neighborhood
in the German capital from Italy. He planned on rushing back home
to his wife and 17-year-old son in their Polish village near the
German border, said the truck's owner, Ariel Zurawski.
Instead, the depot's schedule required the driver to come back
the next day. Hours after he left the site, his truck began
lurching forward and backward, an indication that the 37-year-old
trucker -- later found shot, beaten and stabbed inside -- was no
longer in control of the vehicle that would plow through a
Christmas market that night.
"Lukasz was massacred. I barely recognized him" in police
photos, said Mr. Zurawski, a cousin who has known him since
childhood and who later reviewed the truck's GPS data. He said he
believes Mr. Urban -- a powerfully built 6-foot-tall, 260-pound man
-- would "fight to the end" to save his vehicle.
Mr. Urban's death has made him a national figure as an attack
that seemed distant again claims a Polish life. At least four
Polish citizens have died in terrorist attacks this year, including
two slain when a carjacker in Nice, France, drove a truck into a
crowd of revelers in July. Another 61-year-old woman died in a
bombing at the Brussels airport. Some Poles have suggested Mr.
Urban receive a posthumous presidential medal.
"I'd like to offer my condolences to the family of the Pole
murdered in Germany," said Jaroslaw Kaczynski, the leader of
Poland's ruling party. "We will do everything to make sure such
situations don't happen again."
The specifics of Mr. Urban's movements after he was turned away
from the warehouse aren't entirely clear. When he pulled up early
Monday, the depot asked him to park elsewhere because there wasn't
enough space, a Thyssenkrupp spokeswoman said, although she
couldn't say where he then headed.
It appears Mr. Urban parked nearby and set out to grab lunch.
One of the last pictures taken from his phone showed the trucker at
a kebab shop.
By 3:45 p.m., his truck had begun to shudder and start up, and
move in jerking motions -- as if a beginner had overtaken the
wheel, said Mr. Zurawski, who gave the GPS data to police. Police
initially said the trucker remained alive for hours to come.
Mr. Zurawski isn't sure: "If alive, what would he be doing?" he
said. "They must have killed him, violently on the spot."
--Andrea Thomas in Berlin contributed to this article.
Write to Martin M. Sobczyk at martin.sobczyk@wsj.com and Drew
Hinshaw at drew.hinshaw@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 21, 2016 17:47 ET (22:47 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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