Trucking Hell

Disaster strikes on the M42 when a huge transporter carrying four brand new electric Audis goes up in flames.

Following men and women working in the heavy recovery business, as they tackle jack-knifed lorries, crashed HGVs and roadside breakdowns.

Steve comes to the rescue when a trailer rolls over on a busy roundabout on the A46, scattering hay bales everywhere, while Lantern recovery op Merrie faces a recovery nightmare.

When a 44-tonne truck rolls over and blocks a busy dual carriageway in Derby, operations manager Steve needs all his know-how to tackle the job.

Ant and Matt arrive at the scene of a catastrophic lorry crash on a narrow road. A truck is wedged three metres deep in a boggy dyke after coming a cropper in the freezing fog.

Crouch Recovery op Steve Hodges gets called to a truck stranded in a park. 

A 15-tonne water tanker has been swallowed by a sinkhole in Wokingham town centre. Lantern lass Merrie rushes to the scene, where her concern is what might lurk within.

A coach that has crashed into a hedgerow requires some creative thinking to get rescued; a lorry carrying a machine part needs assistance getting up a steep hill.

A coach that has driven off the road into a hedgerow needs to be rescued before rush hour; a bin lorry has gotten stuck in the mud on a narrow country road.

In a muddy Leicestershire field, recovery op Simon is confronted with not one, but two trucks in need of rescuing. The first got stuck following its satnav, while the second came a cropper trying to pull it free, making this recovery job a little out of the ordinary! Initially, Simon tries to pull both vehicles out at the same time using a daisy-chain technique he learnt in the army. As he begins this epic pull, the two 7.5-tonners simply start to plough up the muddy field even more. His double truck winch-out idea hasn't gone to plan, so he must rethink his whole rescue plan. Lantern recovery op Merrie is on her way to urgently assist a stricken unit and trailer that's broken down at the entrance to a busy industrial estate in Kent. Once on the scene, Merrie gets to work immediately on what seems to be a straightforward recovery job. But when it comes to removing its half shaft for towing, Merrie needs to work next to the live traffic, putting herself in an extremely hazardous position with no protection from the passing vehicles that need to squeeze past just inches from her back. And Mick gets called out to a fully loaded artic that needs recovering from the side of the busy A45 in Northamptonshire. He needs to move quickly and clear the scene with the broken-down lorry. All is going to plan until he tries to locate the port to hook up the air line from his wrecker that will allow him to release its brakes for towing. No matter where he looks, he simply can't find the right working input, meaning his recovery effort has become as stuck as the truck he's trying to rescue!

There's a perilous situation on the M25 when a slide bed truck carrying a van loses both its offside wheels. It threatens to topple into the inside lane and, to make matters worse, it's on a blind bend just beyond a junction. Lantern recovery op Merrie faces a race against time to stabilise the vehicle and prevent a calamitous collapse before she can even consider towing it to safety. The process calls for two full motorway closures as well as a lane one closure throughout — yet not all motorists obey the rules, making this one of the most hazardous rescues Merrie has faced. In Leicester, Crouch Recovery boss Adam sends op Jamie out in a brand new tractor, after a misguided shortcut across a boggy green in a housing estate has caused a dustbin lorry to sink deep down into the mud. The lorry is so firmly wedged that initial towing attempts see it pulling the tractor back towards it, so Jamie must use all of the bespoke tractor's hardware to stand any chance of taking out this trash titan. With wintry weather setting in, the workload is increasing for op Kevin. While on shift with a double decker recovery truck, he has two jobs to contend with — one car that has had a collision with a petrol tanker and a second with a mechanical failure on the hard shoulder of the M6. Kevin must contend with an inaccessible car park, disgruntled customers and an absence of support on the motorway, while also being buffeted by the winds caused by HGVs hurtling past at 60mph.

It's Friday and, just as rush hour hits, a lorry load of fizzy drinks has exploded, going up in smoke and causing traffic chaos on the busy M1. The fire crew have extinguished the fire, and Highways England have completely shut the motorway to clear the burnt-out wreck. But nothing's too hot to handle for the Crouch team: incident manager Steve co-ordinates the clear-up and op Mark is on hand with his low-loader in this pressurized situation. A 44-tonne artic has veered off a tiny country lane and is well and truly stuck in the mud. With hardly enough room to swing a cat, let alone his recovery vehicle, Lee takes his chances and uses a single cable winch out to pull the beast out of its muddy grave. Over in Hertfordshire, recovery op Michael is also bogged down with a problem. A tractor unit and trailer delivering a container onto a rugby pitch can't find its footing in the mud. It's the first winch-out with Michael's new truck, so he's got to be on the ball to get it out — especially as it's his ex-boss! On the last job of his shift, 25-year-old Jordan's on a callout to clear a smashed-up electric car on a busy London through road. To shift it, he's forced to block a lane of traffic as rush hour peaks. But all attempts to get it off the road quick are going flat: Jordan can't find anywhere to attach his strop on the damaged front end, and sparks are flying as impatient drivers want to get home.

In Hertfordshire, Sean tries to shift a tractor unit and trailer fully laden with 27 tonnes of wood, after it left a busy section of road and toppled over into a muddy ditch.

An artic lorry stacked full of bed frames and mattresses has careered off a busy Lincolnshire A-road into a dry stone wall and is now lying in a ditch.