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Security measures planned at site of trucker attack

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Updated Nov 3, 2018

See Phillips interviewed in this video from TV station KSPR, Springfield, Missouri.

The tribes operating the TP Gas Station, an Idaho truck stop where a Missouri driver was beaten severely Sept. 3, announced plans to improve security.

Also, John Williams, who owns the small fleet that employs the victim, Amos Phillips, says Williams’ attorney and one representing the tribes are talking about Phillips receiving money from the truck stop’s insurer. A gofundme.com campaign to help pay for Phillips’ medical bills had reached $4,130, from 37 donors, by Friday afternoon.

The truck stop’s enhanced security will include improved lighting and surveillance in all areas that service customers, including truckers resting in their trucks, according to a press release from the Shoshone-Bannock tribes of the Fort Hall Reservation.

“Safety is a top priority and we will always do what we can to improve our customer safety,” said Carlie Jim, retail operations the Tribal Enterprise, which operates the TP facility in Fort Hall, just north of Pocatello, Idaho, on I-15. This is the first time an incident of this type occurred at any of the Tribal gas stations on the Fort Hall Reservation, the press release said.

Phillips, driving for JWE Inc., a five-truck fleet based in Camdenton, Mo., says he was awakened around 2:30 a.m. by a man who pried open his passenger door and demanded money. After a scuffle in which Phillips was beaten with rocks, the assailant fled. Phillips sustained broken facial bones, facial cuts and a blood clot on his brain, which later produced seizures.