YORK, Pa. — The last 19 months have been a long road for Josiah Dorwart.
“Doctors told me I shouldn’t have made it through, I should have died…and why I’m still here? I’ll never know," he said.
The 25-year-old is continuing to recover from a brutal attack that changed his life.
On February 16, 2022, Josiah was working his route as a tow truck driver in York.
“Every morning starts out the same," he explained.
But it very quickly became a different kind of day.
Josiah was picking up a car on South Penn Street in the city of York when a bus drove up behind him.
“I was trying to give [the bus driver] enough room so he could get around my truck," recalled Dorwart. "Well, then this other guy comes up and just stops right beside my truck.”
According to court documents, Josiah asked the driver, Eliezer Graciani-Alicea, to turn around so the bus could get through.
“I asked him three times and said 'Can you please move? Can you please move?'" he explained. "The last time I just got irritated.”
Dorwart says he did raise his voice but never threatened the man in any way.
Instead, Graciani-Alicea got out of his car and started yelling at Josiah.
“I just shook my head and said I’m going back to what I’m doing, I’m not dealing with this," he said. "[I] turned around and as soon as I turned around, everything went black.”
That moment was caught on the bus’s surveillance camera.
Josiah was sucker-punched in the back of the head, knocked out cold, in an attack police say was completely unprovoked.
“And as soon as he hit me, he walked back to his car and drove off," said Dorwart.
Josiah suffered a severe brain bleed, the second of his young life. He also suffered a skull fracture and a few other minor injuries.
He spent several days in the hospital, miraculously avoiding surgery. It took him several days to be able to walk again.
At the time of the attack, Josiah's grandmother was in hospice, and passed away while he was in the hospital.
"I never got to say goodbye," he said.
Josiah credits the bus driver and another good Samaritan who rushed to his side, with saving his life.
“If it hadn’t been for them, or the video itself, I don’t know what would have happened," he said.
Graciani-Alicea was tracked down by police and arrested after they released the video and gathered tips from the public.
Earlier this year, he was convicted of aggravated assault and simple assault.
“I try to put myself in his mindset about what he did to me," said Josiah. "If that was me, I’d feel sick to my stomach.”
Josiah has moved out of the area and is now working two jobs, neither in the towing industry.
"I don't know if I can ever go back," he said. "Will I ever go back? It's tough for me to say."
He's also trying to spend as much time as possible with his loved ones.
“There’s still some mental things I struggle with, physically I’m doing good.”
Josiah is sharing his story in hopes it can teach others who end up on the wrong side of road rage.
“For one, never turn your back and that’s something I always did and that was my big mistake," said Dorwart. "And try to be as nice as you can."
As he continues his recovery, Josiah isn't sure if Graciani-Alicea is remorseful and says he’ll probably never know.
But in the end, that’s not what matters.
“In hindsight, the way I look at it, I’m still alive, I’m still here…there’s nothing more I could be thankful for," said Dorwart.
Graciani-Alicea was sentenced on Thursday, September 28 to 4-8 years in jail for the attack, according to Kyle King with the York County District Attorney's Office.
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