Original subtitles

DAVE PETTITT (NARRATES): This time on Heavy Rescue: 401...

This is gonna be a mess.

..an ugly offload...

Driving me nuts, man.

..shreds Mitch's nerves.

(GROANS) My god!

It's very dangerous.

Sonny...

cuts it close.

Are we good to go?

..and a load of whisky...

Looks like it went for a bit of a ride.

..brings a brutal hangover.

Oh, that doesn't look like fun.

On the 401 through Toronto, dawn is still hours away,

but commuters are already starting their push into the city.

FEMALE REPORTER: Traffic is actually looking pretty good on the 401,

but the temperature is dropping,

which means once it gets below freezing,

keep an eye out for some black ice, and just reduce your speed.

It will be an ugly drive.

Sergeant Kerry Schmidt needs to be ready,

because some drivers won't be.

We get that first bit of ice on the roads,

drivers don't anticipate that's going to affect

their stopping distance or their handling,

but only when they step on the brakes do they realise

that they're on a sheet of ice, and all of a sudden,

now they're either into a vehicle in front of them,

or into the concrete guardrail or the ditch beside them.

Just after 5am, the ice is taking its toll...

..and on the 401 east of Oshawa...

..emergency crews are on the way immediately...

..but the ice isn't finished.

That's the dangerous thing with black ice.

You never know when you could hit a patch and lose control.

B&G's Bill Wright Junior is heading to join his father

at another call just down the icy stretch of highway.

The roads are complete ice.

There's cars sliding all over the place.

Bill can't pass up the chance to stop and help...

It's jackknifed pretty hard.

It's sunk in the mud a little bit here,

but he's not too heavy, so it shouldn't be terrible,

I'm hoping.

..but Bill's spent most of his career

doing long-haul towing...

I don't have a ton of experience doing recoveries,

So, I'm going to have to do this one on my own.

..and this jackknife is right on the edge of the slippery road.

We gotta be, uh, super careful here.

Keep your head on a swivel.

(THEME MUSIC)

On North America's busiest highway, closure...

is not an option.

I have to winch this tractor around straight

and get him up on the road.

It's super icy out.

People are looking at the scene

and not paying attention to what they're doing,

So, one little mistake can be big trouble.

It should come over easy if it's empty.

Bill gets the semi straightened out...

OK, so that's far enough around now

I can get a front tow hook on it,

and, uh, pull 'er the rest of the way around from the front.

..and as he prepares for phase two...

Phew! What's up, dude?

..he'll have some help, his little brother, Mitch.

In front of you is, like, really slippery.

On the road, you mean? Yeah, I know.

Yeah, just, like, sliding on my feet.

Yeah, the roads are slick.

You could pretty much put hockey skates on

and skate around right now.

Billy doesn't have a ton of time

on his own doing big recoveries like this,

so it is cool to see him out there on his own trying to get it done.

Yeah, you just want to sit in it and steer?

If I could give him a hand, give him some, you know,

emotional support just as much as, you know, physical support,

we can get this thing out of here.

Good?

OK, hold on.

Hey, Mitch, I'm just gonna pull ahead,

and we'll pull it a bit further.

Bill just needs to make one final pull...

Whoa!

..but the ice is building up, along with morning traffic.

Whoa...

There's still a couple of lanes open.

You know, you got high speeds, you got slippery roads,

and Billy's kind of standing there.

This is probably, like, the most dangerous time

to be operating a heavy tow truck.

Go!

That'll be it. That'll be good enough.

Alright, Billy can get hooked up

and get this thing taken out of here now.

You're good.

It kind of went as good as it can go.

It was a big confidence booster.

It was a good chance for me to show my skills as an operator.

I think Billy did an awesome job.

He got the thing out of there

just as fast as anybody else would have.

While Bill heads to the shop...

OK, buddy. Later, man.

..Mitch is heading to a much bigger job.

Just one mile to the east, the ice has claimed another semi...

..and Bill Senior is assessing a tough recovery.

No serious injuries, everybody's OK, but a lot of damage.

An eastbound car spun out as the fully loaded semi

was heading up the on-ramp,

forcing the truck to swerve, crashing off the ramp.

The bottom of the trailer,

the wall and the upper roof rail are both broken,

So, the integrity of the trailer is not there to allow us

to upright it with the load in it.

The crew will have to offload 50,000 pounds

of baled shredded paper.

Oh, yeah, it's right on its side.

The truck's mangled. Alright, let's do it.

As the new arrival gets his first look,

his father is forming a plan.

We're gonna cut the roof out of the trailer.

We've got the fear of fire with the small pieces of paper.

Matt, do you wanna bring the bucket around

So, I can stand in the bucket?

The crew needs access to unload, but they can't risk sparks

from a saw near the paper,

so Bill's called for a specialised tool...

the nibbler.

It's like using a can opener, but it takes a really long time,

but that's the only way we can do it right now.

You're good now. I can feel the wall coming out.

Once the wall's down, we can start grabbing these bales,

and getting them offloaded.

..but getting at the load...

This is gonna be a mess, eh?

Like...

..was just the first challenge.

The problem now is how do you handle

50,000 pounds of confetti?

How do you unload this?

We're just gonna see how well it stays together

if you lay it down.

Come ahead a bit.

No, you're in. That's it.

Try it?

No.

Everything you touch, it just, like, falls apart.

Can he get under it with the bucket?

Just, like, by the bucket load?

OK, clamp!

..but even when they do get a grip...

Oh, back up.

Hey, man, pick your bucket up.

He can't even get out now.

It's wedged in there, eh?

We can't back up with the weight on the forks

because it's such a steep incline.

Tilt?

Oh, my good god.

Come on, man.

It's just falling apart.

We gotta get it from the trailer to the bins.

Sounds easy, it's paper, but it's billions, and billions,

and billions of little loose pieces of paper.

Plan B, we have to bring in some type of equipment

that can reach into the trailer and put it individually

into several containers for the roll-off truck.

Go in, drive in.

The telehandler has the ability to zoom out with its forks,

So, it has reach.

Boom out.

The telehandler has the reach...

Whoa!

Pick it up. Gently.

Real gentle.

..but that only solves half the problem.

So, set it on the ground now.

Don't break it.

This is probably gonna be one of the worst offloads

we've ever done.

This is gonna be a nightmare.

Where's the bobcat? Ryan!

So, set it on the ground...

In a ditch off the 401 in Clarington...

This is gonna be a nightmare.

..the B&G crew is fighting 50,000 pounds of confetti.

Tilt back.

It's just bad.

The bundles are all broken, the straps are broken,

it's down in the ditch.

It's got every wrong thing going for it.

As far as offloads go,

I've never worked with anything that's,

you know, this fragile.

The second that you touch it, it just disintegrates.

(GRUNTS)

I give up.

All we have to do is touch it, and it's falling apart.

If the wind blows to the north here and takes this loose paper

across the highway, it creates a visual issue,

and we have secondary accidents.

We gotta come up with something different,

or we're gonna be here all day.

We're gonna try and stab one.

Two forks close together.

I want you to stab the middle of that bundle,

down to about three quarters, and pick it up.

Just go boom up.

Keep booming it in.

Straighten your wheels out and back up.

I think that worked a little better.

Yeah. Yeah.

One bale down,

but more than 20 still to go, over 40,000 pounds.

It's getting to be a very long day

with this slow process of getting

the telehandler in and out of the trailer.

This is taking way too long.

I'm gonna jump in the telehandler and, uh, and give this a shot.

Good. Oop, don't get into the next one.

Just tired of this paper, man.

I want to just roll this thing over already.

Careful.

Just as Mitch gains momentum...

Aah...

Tilt down.

That's not gonna work.

Driving me nuts, man.

As I move down this trailer,

bundle by bundle, towards the front of it,

there's actually less, and less, and less room

to pull these bundles out.

The trailer's position is causing the wall to sag...

Aw, no, that's not good.

..and Mitch is all out of room.

The wall of the trailer's sagging further.

The weather's changing. It's getting a little colder.

There's a bit of snow in the air.

This is far messier than we anticipated

when we showed up.

(GROANS) My god!

Just 12 miles Northwest...

I'm just coming across the 407 right now.

I'll be there soon.

..and the aftermath of a tragedy.

I'm just heading to the scene of a fatality

where a tow truck driver was killed

while he was out assisting another disabled motorist.

I don't know what the details are right now.

The last thing I want to hear

is that there's been another collision involving

a tow truck operator,

and certainly we don't want to see someone getting killed,

and yet we see it happening all too often.

Here we are.

We're just coming to the scene here right now.

So, there's the tow truck.

What time did this crash happen?

Around 8:30.

The witnesses said watch out, they dove into the ditch.

The silver car came through and hit the tow truck driver.

Wow.

It was a sheet of ice.

The red car's in the ditch, and the tow truck gets on scene.

He's pulling out the red car, and while he's standing there,

the silver car comes in.

This is just one of those sad reminders,

when you see stopped emergency vehicles,

tow trucks with their amber lights flashing,

you need to slow down and move into an adjacent lane.

Sadly, it was a 56-year-old man here, a local tow operator,

that paid with his life,

and the sad thing is now that some family

is going to be planning a funeral instead of planning their holidays.

It's just an absolutely devastating situation.

Mitch?

I'm gonna go lift your wall up for you.

Back down on the 401...

We're gonna lift the roof up,

the wall up, to give Mitch some space.

..Bill is giving Mitch some extra clearance to finish

the marathon offload.

Grab it in the middle with one.

Well, it certainly gave us more room.

We'll just have to see how it works out for Mitch there.

What I'm talkin' about!

Does that help ya? Oh, 100%.

While Mitch is finishing up, we'll get rigged up,

So, right when they're finished, we can get the upright done.

We're not wasting any time.

Are you OK with that heavier chain there?

That's fine.

We're rigging right to the rim.

Alright, one more bale.

Awesome.

Get this show on the road!

(GRUNTS)

They'll redirect two low lines from Mitch's rotator,

and one from the 35-ton to the tractor,

pulling down to bring the semi up.

I guess she's ready.

The question now, will the trailer survive the roll?

There is still some product on that bottom wall,

and there's no roof,

So, there's-there's not a lot of structure

to this trailer anymore.

We gotta get the back door closed to help

the back of the trailer stay square.

Once you cut the roof out of a trailer,

that has a big part of the structure of that trailer,

so now, when you go to roll it over,

you're missing a ton of that structure

to keep it together.

In? Got 'er!

Just hoping those walls stay together.

Yeah, just watch the bottom.

Ready to go? I'm ready to go, buddy!

OK.

Good?

Good here, OK. OK, give 'er a go.

OK, start pulling yours in a little bit.

The trailer not having its entire integrity,

it's very important to lead with the tractor,

get the tractor coming first, use the tractor

sort of as a spring-loaded mechanism to help bring the trailer.

You working both a little bit?

Tiny bit, yup.

It might pull ya a bit sideways.

(TENSE MUSIC)

You working both a little bit?

Tiny bit, yup.

East of Oshawa on the 401...

Bring your drives. Come with him.

..the B&G crew is working to bring up what's left of the semi

without ripping it apart.

As we upright the truck,

does the low side wall stay in the trailer,

or does it actually collapse and come out?

The wall, is it coming up?

It's off the ground, but it is sagging.

There she comes.

Bring 'er, Jimmy, load 'er up!

Here she comes, baby.

That's good. Awesome.

Perfect. Perfect.

Perfect, buddy.

See if you can pull the nose around with what you got right there.

For the final leg,

Mitch will steer the wreck to the road.

You ready, Mitch? Yes!

It's coming.

After a complete day

of basically fighting with this thing,

to see it up on its wheels and on the road,

it's like a million pounds coming off your back.

It's a super good feeling.

You got 'er, good job.

At the end of the day, this is one of the toughest recovery

of a product that I've done in my career.

Slow, you know, gruelling.

There was all kinds of real major complications for such a,

you know, an easy load that had very little value.

It's all good, guys, good job.

Thanks for your help, much appreciated.

Alright.

Alright, good job, Brian, thanks.

I mean, all in all, it's a good day when everybody goes home

to their family, right?

As morning breaks in Toronto...

..a mix of rain and sleet smashes down on the roads.

I'm gonna go for a cruise.

I'm going to go up and down on the highway.

On the westbound 401, Sonny Subra is on the move.

First available heavy tow, OPP calling.

He's still working to establish Prompt Towing's new heavy division,

which means keeping his ears open for every police call.

We are new here, so everything's pretty much new,

So, we gotta come from the bottom,

but we are building our company, right?

So, like, there's a lot of competition out there,

so we need to get a call, and we need the customer.

We gotta get there first.

Sonny took a big chance leaving Steve's Towing.

Now, with a baby on the way,

success and security are more important than ever...

That's my responsibility.

I have to do whatever I have to do, and then make sure I feed my family.

That was a first available heavy tow they ask for.

Steve is going, Steve is going.

(BLEEP)

..but the last thing Sonny wants is a race.

I have to be more careful.

Somebody depend on me.

If I am not there, they're gonna struggle.

I don't wanna drive crazy.

You never know on this highway, what's gonna happen.

So, Sonny leaves the first call to the competition,

but as he heads onto Highway 400, he spots another crash scene.

Is that OPP on scene there?

Merging onto the 400,

this car appeared and spun itself around right in front of me.

Looks like this truck is OK, but I'm gonna go talk to them.

The truck only suffered a bent bumper,

but it's rubbing the tire.

This bumper is pushed in right now.

So, I'm just gonna pull the bumper, and then he can go on his way.

Lucky he has no big damage, but still he needs my help.

I'm gonna help him out.

Even though it's too small to be a paying job,

Sonny won't leave the driver stuck.

Can you hold this like this?

Yeah, yeah.

Make sure it's not going down.

I'm going to suck it in, OK?

He doesn't need a tow, he just need a hand.

It's a good deed, but for Sonny, also an investment.

It's coming out? Pull?

I'm so happy to help the guy.

He's gonna be my customer in the future.

Watch out!

I'll give you my business card.

In the future, you can call me, you know what I mean?

I'm adding one customer.

Exactly.

Whenever I help people, they come to know,

"Oh, Sonny from Prompt Towing helped me out."

Karma, it will come back to you.

120 miles southwest at the Ross Services yard...

Westbound, westbound straight, the mill road.

..Mike Ross is rolling out.

We're headed out the 401, west of London.

There's a tractor-trailer rolled over.

It's supposed to be sideways across the highway.

The OPP and Fire Department are already on scene

as traffic fights to squeeze past.

Driver says he was affected by a gust of wind that forced him

onto the shoulder of the roadway, and caused the tractor-trailer

to roll on the right side, slide for about 150 metres

before coming to a rest where you see it now.

The backup is growing by the minute.

I'm gonna take the shoulder

and work our way down towards the scene.

The best scenario for Mike,

a quick upright to get traffic moving.

We'll have a good look at it.

Yeah, that doesn't look good, eh?

Oh, the trailer's hurt pretty bad.

Like, this is part of the structure of the trailer here,

and the roof's pushed out of it.

Top rail must be separated at the wall.

Not a good sign.

Inside, 500 cases of whisky,

totalling 30,000 pounds.

Cardboard boxes, right to the roof.

The structural integrity of the trailer is just gone.

If you put that trailer up loaded, it would break right in half.

Mike can already see,

this recovery will be anything but quick.

So, yeah, we definitely got to unload that.

It's gonna be A...

long one, yeah.

On the westbound 401,

traffic is barely crawling up the shoulder...

So, I'm gonna start cutting the roof out of it.

..and Mike Ross is getting to work.

We'll come in here with a forklift.

The forklift can get right in here.

The semi isn't going anywhere until his crew can remove

the whisky inside,

but he can't risk offloading through the trailer doors,

which are helping maintain the structure.

Keeps a lot of support to the trailer.

Once you open that door, it'll lose its square,

and you'll never get it closed again.

A little after 5pm, Mike's first backup arrives,

his father, David, just ahead of the remaining crew.

You got the forklift and the skids, and...

We got half a dozen people coming out.

A few minutes later, recent hire Austin Hutchinson

gets his first look at the job ahead.

Ah, it looks like he went for a bit of a ride.

That's the rub rail.

Ah, this looks like a nice one.

Doesn't that look like fun?

Yeah, this is gonna be a good one.

At least it's not broke.

We're not standing in a puddle of it yet.

I don't see any leaking, really, to speak of.

What do you want to do, go section by section?

Try to take what you can?

Well, a forklift can only get to here,

so we'll try to bring everything outta this hole, I guess.

It's front to back, floor to ceiling,

and we've got to get this done as fast as we can.

..but even then, it will take hours of work

before they can even start to clear this highway.

120 miles down the 401...

..nightfall brings a blast of winter to Toronto...

and northeast of the city, up Highway 23,

a cube van has rolled right off the road.

This is a very dangerous situation right now.

A long day of chasing has finally paid off for Sonny,

if he can ever get started on this job.

We're gonna put a two winch,

and then trying to drag it this way...

but I don't want to do it without some traffic blocked.

It's a bad spot, because it's a downhill,

So, nobody can see us, right?

It's snow and icy, and, like, we don't want to get hit.

End of the day, we gotta go home, you know what I mean?

The tragic loss of an operator on Highway 12 is still very fresh.

Somebody died, so...

I hope the police come here

and then give me a traffic control here.

It's a quick pull, but Sonny doesn't want to risk it

until traffic is blocked.

I really think about my safety,

because I got a baby coming.

I have to make sure it's nothing gonna happen to me.

With crashes all over the region,

he'll have to wait for Durham police,

while drivers could give in to distraction.

The cop gonna take so long.

There's just a two lane, one lane to go, one lane to come,

So, it's very dangerous.

If somebody looking, and like, swerve into the other lane,

that's a disaster.

I called Durham Regional Police, but they said they will attend,

but they're all busy.

So, Sonny makes a hard call.

I was waiting, waiting, waiting, waiting.

I'm not getting nobody, so I need to clear this accident

as soon as possible.

I'm gonna back up, pull it right away,

and we're gonna get out of here.

(GRUNTS)

Half of my mind goes to the work,

and half is going to be on the traffic.

Just as that traffic is getting even worse...

How are you doing? Need a hand?

It's pretty bad out here on the roads tonight.

I should be OK, but...

Need it blocked?

Yeah, yeah, the traffic, man.

Want me to sit back here?

Yeah, sit back there, and then just slow the traffic down.

OK.

Everybody's busy, but in his busy time,

he stops and helps me, that's great stuff.

Classic Towing one-ton op

Dan Inwood takes over traffic control.

Slow down!

Watch your back, Sonny.

(GRUNTS)

I'm just trying to look out for Sonny and watch his back.

We got to look out for each other out here.

It's very, very dangerous.

Slow down, slow down.

I am scared, very scared if somebody gonna hit me.

Watch your back.

It's very, very dangerous.

On an icy patch of Highway 23...

Slow down, slow down!

..Sonny's competitor has come to his rescue.

As soon as I rigged up, Dan was blocking traffic,

So, we can get it done fast as we can.

After the recent tragedy, Dan needed to help.

That was one of my friends that was killed.

He was a good guy.

Once again, people not paying attention

and slowing down.

Just crazy.

On a road this bad, there's no room for rivalry.

OK.

Are we good to go?

Yeah, man, you're good here!

Really a good brotherhood in the tow truck industry.

It's not very easy to see out here.

Wherever you go,

they see other tow truck drivers, they respect.

They really respect, because they know

how hard work they are doing.

Thank you.

It's going more into the ditch.

Yeah. Do you want me to turn the wheel?

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I'll get it.

Yeah, turn it all the way.

OK? Good.

Gonna unhook, spin around?

OK.

We're gonna spin around this thing,

then hook it up and go.

Watch your back, Sonny. Yeah, yeah.

As Sonny makes his final adjustments...

the towing brotherhood has come through.

I'm blessed that night, because Dan showed up from nowhere.

There you go, bro.

All good? Thank you so much.

No problem, be safe. I'll see you around.

Thank you. Yeah, man.

Ah, we all try to help each other out,

for the most part.

We gotta look out for each other out here.

It's pretty deadly.

I'm safe today

because Dan gave me a hand blocking the traffic.

Back on the westbound 401 in London...

Oh, that doesn't look like fun.

This thing's in the middle of the road.

We need it out of there.

It's been almost six hours since a load of whisky slammed down

across the highway...

Oh, he's revvin' 'er up, Mike.

Here he comes.

..and for the last two hours, the Ross crew has been removing it

by hand.

Now, the crew needs to make some final adjustments,

and they'll be ready to upright.

We got 'er.

The roof's pushed out of it, so when we stand it up,

it's gonna be too tall to go down the road,

So, we're trying to flatten it out a bit.

She's a couple feet higher than it's supposed to be.

OK, I think that's as good as it gets.

And the roof isn't the only part of the trailer that's compromised.

We're going to, uh,

put a couple of these logistic straps in here

to try and keep this wall

to come up with it when we pull the trailer over.

It's split from the floor of the trailer.

Just as a little bit of added insurance here.

I worked alongside some guys that have been in the business

for well over 50 years.

They've got a lot of experience, and the tricks that they learned

along the way got relayed down to me.

Yeah, she's in there. We got 'er.

Tonight, Austin will have to match his rotator skills

with senior op Mike...

I think that'll do. She's gonna sit there, anyway.

..their first big double rotator job together.

Michael makes everything look easy.

I mean, when you do that much recovery, you...

you get used to it.

We'll just hook on that chain there.

Mike, rigged to the tractor, and Austin to the trailer,

will pull down in one fluid motion

to keep the trailer intact as it rolls onto its wheels.

You gotta keep 'em in sync just to kind of make

an even pull so we don't twist the trailer.

Twisting it would be bad, because it could tear apart then.

Let's go.

Success depends on a smooth roll upright.

Don't get ahead of him, OK?

OK, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

I started to pull a little bit more,

and Mike was essentially trying to catch up.

Put 'er up.

Austin was a little too far along.

The trailer is so damaged, they can't risk another trial run.

I don't know if it's gonna stay together.

OK, she's goin' up.

Did it stay on?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, perfect.

It's just fine.

Crash and bang.

It's what they do when they're empty.

It's upright.

They'll just have to, uh, hook onto it and pull it outta here.

I'm gonna get a hold of the Ministry of Transport and let them know

we'll have the highway open sooner than expected.

Hook 'er up. She's all yours.

In this industry, we're always learning,

where there's never a day that we're not learning,

So, to work alongside somebody like Mike,

who's got a lot more experience than I do,

it's great to learn from him.

And at the end of the day, when we get the job done,

we're happy with it.

We wanna go home.

We're outta here.

They got the truck outta there now.

It won't be long before it's opened.

As the sun rises just east of Toronto...

It's not something I wanna do too often.

..tow trucks and wreckers from across the province head

to a staging area in Pickering

to set up for a tribute to the fallen operator.

Today's the procession,

the last cruise

for a fellow tow operator that was struck and killed.

He lost his life while he was working.

It shouldn't happen. There's a law for us.

When you see an amber light, you have to slow down and move over.

You know, every day when we wake up and go to work,

you know, our main goal is to get home to our families.

It's definitely something we think about all the time.

It's a constant danger.

I have employees that are out on the line every day

doing what Todd was doing the day he was killed,

but I also have my family, so for myself, I have both scenarios

in the back of my mind all the time, losing an employee,

and possibly losing one of my own children.

We're gonna take a drive from here to the gravesite.

It's kind of a sobering moment,

'cause that could have been me.

Dan Steinhauer helped arrange this procession to the cemetery

to pay respects to his friend.

His famous last words was, "I'm on my way."

He would never say no.

Within minutes, everybody knew, and I got a phone call

from my wife asking who it was, and making sure I was OK,

and... it's... it's...

it's, it's hard.

(SOFT MUSIC)

My heart breaks for the family, and, I mean,

I was at that scene when, you know, minutes after he was killed,

which is tough, and now, to be at a funeral,

to watch a family bury a son, that's equally as hard.

And hopefully, people get the message too,

when you see those flashing lights, red, blue, amber,

whatever colour it is, you've gotta slow down, move over.

We all want to get home,

and sadly here, Todd's not coming home.

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