Trucking Hell

There's an emergency in East London when a 25-ton truck hits a railway bridge. And Buzz needs to co-ordinate a multi-agency taskforce when a refrigerated lorry catches fire on the A42.

Jobs include a bulker trailer that has burst into flames, a heavily laden truck that is wedged in soft mud by a busy dual carriageway, and a tractor unit with a broken prop shaft.

In a 600-metre-long tunnel on the M25, self-proclaimed ‘A-Team' Steve and Daniel must combine forces to try to shift a 44-tonne unit and trailer stacked full of breeze blocks. With the hard shoulder barely wide enough to contain the casualty, these are very cramped conditions in which to even attempt a rescue and with many motorists disobeying a lane closure, it is a perilous job. If they are to succeed, the ‘A-Team' will have to separate the unit and trailer, but with a rear lift looking like the only option, they have to find a way of being able to turn around, as the tunnel is too narrow to do so.

At Crouch recovery HQ, veteran Dave is drawing on 50 years of experience to train his grandson, and company newcomer, Kian on a giant crane. But this is no ordinary training day, as Kian must attempt to lift a burnt-out combine harvester onto a lowloader. With obstacles in the yard to be navigated and the harvester imbalanced due to two and a half tonnes of burnt grain still within it, this is a stern test of Kian's burgeoning skills at the controls.

In the North-East, Kevin is called to rescue an 18-tonne truck that has sunk into mud up to its axels on a waterlogged field which has become a quagmire after recent flooding. Kevin has no choice but to get down and dirty to attach his apparatus, but this is a far from straightforward winch out, with mudflaps turning in and the truck's wheels spinning and sliding and struggling to get any sort of traction as Kevin attempts to pull it free.

After storm Babet battered the UK with 70-miles-per-hour winds and heavy rains it left a wake of destruction, including a 22-tonne houseboat washed up on a muddy bank of the River Trent in Nottingham. Now Steve from Crouch and a boat rescue team have the task of trying to winch it back into the water. For this unique job, Steve's brought a unique piece of kit, a specially customised Mooroka. He sets up on the opposite bank, while the water crew attempt to take the 75-foot steel cable across the river to attach it to the boat. But mother nature has other ideas and the high storm waters mean the recovery could quickly head into choppy waters.

In the South it's a completely different story for Merrie from Lantern, she's not battling the force of nature but traffic and other drivers. A tractor unit and trailer with a trashed gearbox has broken down outside a busy site in Southampton, but diversions and road closures make it almost impossible to find, forcing Merrie to drive her 32-foot wrecker through narrow residential streets. After struggling with a tricky prop shaft and finally attaching the artic to her wrecker Merrie now has a navigational nightmare on her hands, driving back on the same narrow roads, this time with more than double the length.

In Newcastle, at Alpha recovery the yard is bustling and so is the call centre, sending out ops to jobs across the North East. Recovery veteran Kev is in the hot seat driving on his way to shift a refrigerated lorry that's broken down on the remote A69. But on arrival it's not the produce or load that leaves him turning his nose up – it's the stench of the remote layby often used by truckers when nature calls.

There's an emergency in Nottinghamshire when the ground gives way beneath a tipper truck fully loaded with stone aggregate. By the time Operations Manager Steve arrives on the scene, the truck is hanging precariously over a six-foot ditch.

The incident has taken place on a notorious stretch of road and Steve has serious concerns for other drivers. Police are called in to organise a road closure while Steve calls for back up to help haul the lorry to safety. When colleagues Lee and Dave arrive with their recovery trucks the race is on to save the stricken tipper. Steve sends Lee's wrecker to the lorry's flank to lift it with a set of straps while Dave heads to the rear to haul the lorry out backwards. But once the lorry is upright Steve changes strategy. The safer option is to pull the lorry out forwards but to accomplish that the lads will need to set up a special winch and use a large tree as an anchor to carry out a complicated reverse pull. Lee holds the truck steady, Dave sets the winch in motion and the challenge is on.

Meanwhile in Middlesbrough, Dave has a task on his hands when the number 63 bus to Redcar gets grounded on a grassy verge. Dave needs to carry out a tricky reversing manoeuvre to winch the bus off the verge. Things get complicated when a swarm of motorists attempt to overtake.

Elsewhere, Daniel needs to get his hands dirty when a delivery truck is damaged after a collision with a car. The steering and brakes are both out of action, and roadside repairs are needed to get the wheels turning. Twenty-five miles away, Daniel's colleague Sean faces a mechanical mystery when a dust cart grinds to a halt in Hertfordshire.

There's an emergency in Surrey when a thirty-six-ton crane gets caught out by a crumbling curb. Having slipped down a muddy bank on its nearside, there is now a real risk of rollover for the huge vehicle. The pressure is on to first stop the crane from getting bogged down any further, and then to figure out how to get the casualty out of the ditch. Lantern recovery op Merrie is leading the rescue operation, helped by wingman, Euan, and they have a mammoth task ahead of them. The crane is listing dangerously, and the challenge is how to level it up so it can be pulled out. Using a combination of two wreckers and a whole lot of elbow grease, Merrie, Euan and the crane crew face an epic battle to get the beached behemoth out of the ditch and back on the road.

Three hundred miles away Alpha recovery op, Mouse, is tasked with the late-night rescue of a tanker that's slipped into a sodden gully in the wilds of Northumberland. Opting to use his winch to haul out the stricken vehicle proves troublesome as the quagmire refuses to release the tanker's rear wheels. It's down to Mouse to find a solution to this recovery puzzle in the darkness of night.

In the Midlands, Crouch recovery op Christina has a challenge on her hands when a damaged family saloon needs to be recovered from the middle of a small country village. Christina wants the rescue to be quick and quiet, but she faces a tricky test keeping the locals happy.

In Northamptonshire, Sean's tasked with recovering a 17-tonne telehandler that's tumbled off a narrow gravel track and ended upside down at the bottom of a ditch. With fellow op Steve's help, he uses a strop around a tree trunk and a second around the telehandler to haul it back upright. Once re-rigged, some careful choreography with his remote control eventually eases it back onto solid ground. But their plan is only half complete. They still need to get it to the end of the dirt track, but soon discover that a major oil leak has left it without steering which works off the hydraulics. Can they quickly find a solution to complete this complex recovery?

Just south of Loughborough, Kevin McCluskey has to rescue a fully-laden delivery truck that has been left dead in the water after the driver and his mate attempted to pass through a flooded section of B-road. Kev's strategy is to attach j-hooks to the truck's axle and haul it free of the floodwater with his winch cable. Kev braves the icy water to attach the j-hooks but with the underside completely submerged, it's a fiddly business. Getting rigged is one thing, but steering the truck onto the back of his low loader without it taking a tumble will be a true test of Kevin's skills.

And on the outskirts of Newcastle, Mouse is called to recover a broken-down bus. Engine failure has left the double decker marooned on a busy T-junction, severely restricting the flow of traffic. A rear end lift and shift is impossible, so Mouse needs to position himself at the front of the bus. But with Newcastle's motorists turning up the heat, he will need to work quickly if he wants an easy end to his week!

In a remote area of Northumberland, a 44-tonne articulated lorry has attempted to drive up a hill, hit sheet ice, slid back down out of control and jackknifed, leaving it wedged across both sides of the road. Alpha's Kevin and Ian have been called to the scene in a specialist six-wheel drive truck to try and cope with the frozen ground and treacherous conditions. As a nerve-wracking nighttime rescue attempt begins, Kevin knows that one false move could see the lorry slide back down the hill again, with its immense weight potentially pulling his own vehicle with it.

Bohdan is on high alert in Hertfordshire for a dicey job on an exit of the A1 Motorway after a lorry gets stranded on the slip road. What he hopes will be a straightforward lift and shift turns into a nightmare, trying to remove the half shaft beside traffic filtering off the motorway. Bohdan must use every trick up his sleeve and all the tools in his arsenal to stand any chance of overcoming a half shaft horror show.

On a country lane near Coventry, recovery op Buzz fears the worst after a 26-tonne lorry gets caught in a ditch having had to swerve to avoid a collision. It's rush hour and the route is a well used cut through, but the only way to get the lorry out will be to shut the road. With a tailback growing, Buzz wants a quick escape for the truck, but it is more stuck than he thought. He must keep adapting to find the best pull set up, but any adjustments eat up the minutes as motorists grow increasingly impatient.

On the busy A42, at rush hour a car transporter goes up in smoke. Fire has quickly spread from the tractor unit to the trailer, dangerously igniting the hybrid vehicles it was carrying. It's critical that the burnt-out cars are removed and tested by the fire crew to check if they are still at risk, because damaged EV lithium-ion batteries can quickly get hot and reignite. Both carriageways are closed to keep the public safe as Steve Kelly from Crouch coordinates the mammoth clear up with a five-person team. The cars need to be craned carefully off the unstable wreckage, tested by the fire crew, and if they are too hot, they need to be cooled off in the latest bit of recovery kit - the EV cool tub.

In the south, teamwork also makes the dream work for Lantern when Daniel and Sean find themselves on a job off the beaten track. An A-class Mercedes missed the turning on a roundabout and took a nosedive down a steep bank colliding into woods. The ‘Lantern Horticultural team' get busy with their chainsaws and axes to clear a pathway before they can winch out the casualty. But first, they need to get a handle on their gardening tools.

Called out from home on the night shift, Dave from Alpha is sent to a job in the dark. A single decker bus has somehow managed to lodge itself in the mud on a mini roundabout outside a shopping centre in Middlesborough. What should be a ‘mini' problem becomes a big headache as Dave struggles to find something strong enough to attach his chains to. He needs his wits about him to extract the bus as it's firmly stuck between a curb, a deep hole, and a turning.

In Northumberland bad weather causes an emergency on the A1 involving an 18-ton truck. Plus, a tricky recovery on the 17th fairway of a golf course when a beer truck grinds to a halt.