Original subtitles

MAN: Unbelievable.

NARRATOR: This time on Heavy Rescue: 401...

This is not good.

..the Chatham crew fights...

I just hope it doesn't break.

..to keep it together.

Steve, you gotta lift it up.

Prince wrestles a heavy load...

Go. Go. Go.

..on a narrow ramp.

Whoa. Hold it. Hold it.

Went for a little ride down here.

..and a load of bottles...

I'm hoping it stays together.

..goes bust.

The morning has barely started on the 401 in Toronto,

but winter is out in full force.

Drivers who fail to adjust

are already turning the commute into chaos.

By 09:00am, heavy recovery crews

are fighting to clear scenes across the city...

Heavy tow trucks on scene of a tractor-trailer rollover.

..and on an on-ramp to Highway 427...

OK, guys, let's go.

..the Steve's Towing crew

is in the middle of a heavyweight battle.

Roll it, roll it, roll it.

Pull.

Go, go, go.

Careful.

Hold on.

It's slippery, so it's a challenging job.

With the truck back on its wheels,

owner Steve Pillai is hoping for a fast recovery.

Weather is bad. It's snowing, it's freezing rain.

It's not a good day to work outside

but we have to put it back on the road.

It's going. It's gonna roll back.

Loaded with over 60,000 pounds of malt,

the trailer is still teetering.

If we let go of the chain, it will roll back again,

back the same way it's came up before,

so we gotta be careful.

On this narrow ramp,

they're limited in where they can set up their trucks.

What do you want to do?

Newly promoted lead operator, Prince, has a plan for the next step.

We gotta slide it a little bit up, bring it to this lane.

Then we'll winch it out.

OK.

For Prince, there's more riding on this job

than the success of the recovery.

I see myself as a leader

and now it's up to me to prove to people

what I can do out here.

Steve, you gotta lift it up.

You want me to lift it? Yeah, you have to lift.

OK.

Steve will use the rotator to lift and swing the front of the trailer

toward the road as far as he can.

It's a little bit tight.

It's a narrow shoulder, no room.

I'm worried. So I don't know what can happen.

OK, I can't do no more.

OK, good.

Dino. You're gonna winch it out.

The bulk of the weight is in the back end.

Go, go, go.

The job we're doing is a very big challenge.

The load we have here is pretty heavy.

Pull.

Go, pull again.

Pull.

Go, try again.

It's not coming out.

Hold on, it's too heavy.

Oh, my god.

On North America's busiest highway,

closure...

..is not an option.

We're headed out, 401 eastbound.

200 miles down the 401, roads are bare

and traffic is moving well through Chatham...

This is one of the busiest stretches of 401.

..but Chatham Towing's John Verkaik is heading 50 miles east.

Everything is backing up right now.

He's joining his crew on a scene that's bottlenecking the highway.

It was Wright's Towing that was called out to them

and they called us for assistance, so it must be quite bad.

Look at that.

Wow.

The transport veered off-road,

slamming down with a 40,000 pound load of auto parts

and skidded on its roof.

Oh, wow.

Wright Towing's John Wright called for help

as soon as he saw the scale of the job.

The trailer was right upside-down with wheels up when we got here.

Chatham's rotator has helped get them off to a good start...

We've taken the cab away,

we've brought the trailer back up to the road sideways,

so we got a good, secure spot to load it here.

Look at that.

..but the worst part is still ahead.

We've seen catalytic converters, stabiliser arms, door handles.

Holy mackerel. All garbage.

It's too heavy for Chatham's Trevor Girard

to leave inside the compromised trailer.

We gotta figure out how we're gonna get

about 40,000 pounds of product out of there.

The guys are gonna have a long day today.

Yeah, these two will be alright. Yeah, leave them.

We gotta watch where we take what cross-members

out at what time.

We gotta keep that side up from collapsing on everything

because if it collapses on everything,

we won't be able to get nothin' out.

It's a big gamble taking out these cross-members.

The more you take out,

the harder you make it for yourself in the end.

See if I can get that back rail

and then maybe just wrap a chain on that top

and maybe we can just get lucky and cradle it out.

Jason Verkaik is ready to get started.

But the mixed load won't come out easily.

It has probably 15 different types of parts.

You could almost build a car out of this truck.

Yeah, you got 'er. She's off.

There's a lot of little parts, right?

And the longer it takes...

Whoa, whoa. Get going.

..the greater the risk

that distracted drivers will cause another crash.

Come on, go.

Unbelievable.

People going by taking pictures.

This is why people in tow trucks get hit.

Unbelievable.

It's sad to say,

but there's a lot of people get killed over it.

It's very frustrating.

All it takes is one person to hit the brakes

and you're gonna have a chain reaction.

Come on.

Get going.

It's crazy.

It blows your mind, the stuff you see.

Back on the ramp to the 427...

Prince, Prince, come here.

..Prince and Steve have worked out their next step.

It's a lot of load inside. What do you want to do?

This chain has to go in the bottom.

The problem is I can't pull the truck from the front.

We didn't have no room on the ramp.

One wrecker and the rotator up front

will hold the truck from rolling back.

The 50 tonnes will ease the trailer to the road

and then they'll winch up the tractor.

Give me more, give me more.

Inside that way.

Yeah.

Here.

We'll run a snatch block from the trailer to our truck.

It's going to give us an easier pull.

The snatch blocks will double the pulling power on each line,

but there's still 60,000 pounds of cargo

leaning out over the ditch.

That's good.

OK, go.

Don't worry, go.

Whoa.

I'm sliding.

I'm pulling it out, but it's pulling my truck in there.

What about if we're losing that truck back again in the ditch?

It's very scary.

OK, hold on one second.

Put the leg down. Put the leg down, man, let's go.

OK, try now.

See if it's gonna work.

It's coming out.

Whoa.

The leg, the leg.

Hold it, hold it.

Oh.

Although the truck has now been uprighted,

the ramp to the 427 is still off-limits.

On the 427 ramp at Finch,

Steve's crew is pulling over 60,000 pounds of dead weight...

Whoa. The leg, the leg.

..that's pulling back.

Hold it, hold it.

Hey. Everybody don't do nothing.

It's pulling my truck. It's digging in the road.

Everybody on scene is frustrated now.

We gotta find a way to get him out.

What do you want to do now?

Let's take the chain off. Yeah.

The wrecker isn't designed to pull from the side.

Prince needs to reposition for a more straight-on angle.

Go turn around the truck.

Then you come and we'll winch it out.

Your angle is gonna be this side.

Good, good, good, good, good.

I have my rotator on the front,

supporting the trailer at the moment,

so now we're gonna run a cable from the back,

from the bottom,

to winch the trailer back on the street.

You gotta put a chain here.

It's still far from the perfect angle

but the ramp is so narrow, it's the best they can do.

They wanna open the highway. They wanna open the ramp.

We gotta get this going.

Dino, go. Go winch it out.

Go, go.

Dino, winch it, winch it.

Both of them.

It's lifting.

Is it gonna flip?

We're good here, we, Dino, go, go.

Dino, go.

It's a little gamble here, but I'm gonna take a chance to see

if the decision is gonna work.

This one first, the outside one.

Outside one.

It's coming, it's coming.

Go, go, go, winch it all the way out,

winch it all the way.

Go as much as you can, all the way, all the way.

Go.

OK, wait. Wait. Wait, wait, wait.

Good job.

The back end is on the edge of the ramp.

We had the back of the trailer back onto the street.

We are so relieved now.

OK, what do you want me to do now?

You gotta move that truck up.

They still need to ease the front end fully onto the road.

So now, we're gonna have to put a chain in the front

and then start to winch it out.

The job is almost done but it's not done yet,

so I don't wanna get too comfortable.

Steve is gonna position himself this way.

For this final pull, Prince isn't sparing any rigging.

Steve, wait. Let Thanush bring his truck too.

The wrecker up front will guide the tractor

and get it pointing in the right direction...

Pull it, pull it.

By the frame, yeah.

It was good to have three trucks on scene today.

They came in handy.

Thanush, winch.

OK, Steve, go the same time, go.

Pull, pull, pull.

Pull it, pull.

It's coming, it's coming out.

..but the narrow ramp strikes again.

Hold on, I can't do no more.

OK, Steve, Steve, Steve. Suck your leg in.

Pull your leg in and winch.

OK, pull.

Winch it out.

Keep pulling, keep pulling.

Pull it.

That's it.

Let's take it off the highway.

Steve and crew have won the game of inches...

The truck is out, ready to go.

It's like, wow, done.

..along with their new lead operator.

Buddy, good job, we're outta here. Let's go.

When we pulled it all the way back on the road,

it was a lot of pressure off my shoulders.

The job is done and it's so beautiful.

Here's the good news we've been waiting for.

That rollover, completely cleared out of the way.

The ramp is now fully accessible again.

Back on the 401, near Dutton...

OK.

..the bulk of the cargo is out

and the trailer is ready to upright...

That's it.

..but the procession of curious drivers isn't letting up.

We wanna get out of here to keep ourselves

and the actual motoring public safer.

Get the rotator in here,

start runnin' some straps and chains,

and then pick it, roll it, and set it back onto the ground.

We're gonna get the strap under it, then we can chain everything.

Straighter, Kori.

Trevor will need to work in unison with Kori Wright...

Outriggers down.

..who's operating Wright Towing's wrecker.

We need the long three-eighths chains.

They rig one set of lines to lift...

Should be tight.

..while another set will catch the trailer

and ease it down.

Tighten 'er up some.

They need to make sure the trailer survives the recovery,

so they can get off this road.

We are going to do a roll

without letting it slam down to the ground

and breaking apart even more than it already is.

OK.

But they've had to remove so much structure,

the odds don't look good.

The wall is actually breached already.

We haven't even started yet and I'm already thinking,

in the back of my mind, how we're gonna do it.

OK, ready? Make sure you keep your catch line tight.

I'm tight.

We gotta make sure we go at the same time,

so we don't break the trailer in half.

You're tight? Let's start getting it up.

The trailer is moaning and groaning. The wind is unbelievable.

Whoa.

Stop.

Eh...

Whoa.

Stop.

She broke.

Wow.

On the 401 west of Dutton,

the Chatham crew's slim chance for a quick upright just got slimmer.

This is a bad deal. She's back touching the ground.

This is not good.

The wall is actually breached, so there's no integrity there.

If they have to recover the trailer in pieces,

it will add hours on this road.

The crews need some way to support the broken section.

Would it help if I got up here with the Bobcat

and we kinda lift it in the centre?

Yeah, try it.

You ready? Pop 'er up?

Go up more if you can.

Hang on a sec.

Trevor wants to brace it even more by softening the landing.

What do you want me to do?

Like, just to help it down?

Yeah.

We're gonna utilise all the equipment we got here.

Better to be safe than sorry.

We've got our toes crossed, our fingers crossed

and we're hoping for the best,

'cause we don't know the way the wall's breached,

how this is gonna happen.

Go.

Pretty flimsy, isn't it?

Whoa.

There she goes.

Oh, yeah.

Success.

Seven hours after John Wright made the call...

Good job, man. Good job.

..the semi is ready to tow away.

We're gonna lift it up.

We'll put some chain and binders underneath of it

just to crib it to get back home.

But it's all happy,

and everybody's glad to be going home.

It's a victory that both crews can share.

We got 'er done.

The afternoon rush is just starting,

so they can open it up and get things rolling again.

We'll be outta here.

As night falls back in Toronto, conditions have cleared up...

The roads are dry.

The sky is just overcast, nothing is falling down.

..but sergeant Kerry Schmidt has seen how some drivers react

after a storm passes.

The real danger right now is traffic is now speeding up

and that is a concern for us

because we see far too many drivers driving too fast

and really not paying attention to the way they should be driving.

Just east of the city,

high speeds have highway maintenance workers

watching their backs.

Why would you slow down? Like, look at this guy, he's flyin'.

Gets a little hairy at times.

It's posted 100k.

Some people respect the laws, some don't.

The crew is installing sensors into the road surface.

It's gotta be levelled.

They'll help dispatchers

determine when to send out salt trucks...

It'll measure water, temperature.

If they get a freezing point on the road,

they know they better get their guys there to salt

before something bad happens.

..if the crew can safely finish their job.

Little gaps like this one, the lead car is usually the fastest.

So, just to the west, Constable Taylor Konkle

is out to take the worst offenders off the road.

Alright, I got one at 156.

Stunt driving is 150 plus.

Nobody should be driving at that rate of speed.

Speeding is still the number one cause of death on the roads.

The higher the speed, the more chance

that a fatality is to occur during that collision.

Hi, there. Can you turn down the music?

Can you turn it down?

OK.

The reason I stopped you is you guys were doing

156km an hour.

That's stunt driving, so I'm gonna impound your car

and take your licence away.

The driver was issued a seven-day suspension for his licence,

and a seven-day impound.

Can I get a first available tow, 400 southbound?

Aggressive driving and speeding

is one of those leading causes of death and injury.

What we're trying to do is send that message home

in a very loud and clear way,

aggressive driving will not be tolerated.

40 miles away on the other side of the city...

..traffic is barely moving on the westbound 403.

We have a little straight truck rolled over here.

John Allen from Abrams Towing

is heading for the source of the slowdown.

The spot where this rollover is, it's right where the 403

joins into the QEW heading down Niagara bound,

so it's a main artery.

With two major highways converging,

this stretch needs to be open by morning.

Terrible spot.

There's gonna be a lot of people held up by this.

Went for a little ride down here.

The truck was hauling a load of five-gallon jugs of water...

This thing is in there pretty good.

..when it slipped off the road and took a hard tumble into the ditch.

You know what? Let's go right around the frame.

Yeah. Bring the chain...

Bring the chain around the frame here.

Yeah.

Tonight, John's depending on fellow rotator op, Brian Newton

to help speed up the job...

Just trying to get it nice, rigged up strong enough

where we have a little bit more control of the vehicle.

We don't have a whole lot of space, here.

We've got the right lane of the ramp,

plus we've got a narrow shoulder to work with.

OK. There we go.

You got it there?

But the good news is they're dealing with just a light load.

Let's try and get it up loaded. OK.

The driver says he's got two skids of water, not a big deal.

This should go over no problem.

I'm hoping we can upright it

as we're bringing it up the hill, pick it, swing it onto the shoulder.

Alright, let me tighten up a little bit.

This is what we call a reverse roll.

The top of the roof is towards where we are,

so it makes it difficult,

because you don't have the frame or the axles to hook off of

to give you low-lines,

and it's putting a lot of pressure on a truck,

where pressures aren't meant to be put.

But with the small amount of cargo inside,

the truck should be able to take it.

We'll lift, and we'll bring it up the hill at the same time.

In the ideal world, that's gonna work.

John on the front and Brian at the back

will roll the truck upright together, and swing it to the shoulder.

We'll go inch by inch.

It is only two skids, so I'm hoping it stays together.

You're off the ground, now.

Creep slowly with it.

On the 403 in Oakville...

That's what I was hoping didn't happen.

..the load of water has ripped right through the truck.

Uprighting this thing with the load in it,

we took a risk, here, and this time, it didn't pay off.

The whole wall's compromised.

We're gonna have to chuck all the water bottles out.

Bring 'er back down. Set 'er down.

Now that wall's blown apart, we're kind of euchred on what to do.

We have to get the load off.

As they get a look inside,

John finds a clue about just what went wrong.

This is a little more than two skids.

A skid is four feet, by four feet by four feet, give or take.

We've got stacks of water bottles from the floor to the ceiling.

It's all gotta come out.

Let's get started.

Let's go behind the truck.

OK, I'll put 'em to the top, here.

Should start an assembly line.

Stack 'em up all here.

And the offload only confirms John's suspicions.

There's probably pretty close to 200 water bottles in there.

Keep going.

It also confirms that this won't be a quick job.

It's not a good moment.

Now we know we're looking at a couple of hours, now.

(GRUNTING WITH EFFORT)

We're headed out to the 402 just around Strathroy area.

120 miles southwest,

Collin Vandenheuvel is answering a call in his father's truck.

He's leaving this one all up to me.

My dad's still hurtin' pretty good, right now.

His hand's still giving him a lot of grief.

33, 28, 46...

Gary's been undergoing physical therapy to regain mobility

after crushing his hand in a forklift mishap.

Everything is in the right spot,

but you did have a pretty significant fracture,

and the progression is a little bit slower.

OK.

But earlier today, he learned he's fallen behind in his recovery.

As long as it continues to heal,

then see what happens, and that's all we can do.

So, tonight, it's Collin behind the wheel...

I'm driving the rotator out here on this one.

..and this 65 tonne rotator is a new addition to the fleet.

Gary bought it used just a few months ago,

a deal too good to pass up.

We've done some equipment upgrades.

We've bought ourselves a new-to-us rotator.

Little bit stronger than the old ones.

Collin will need that power for the job ahead.

There's a truck that's gone into the centre median.

Fully loaded with auto parts.

Yeah, it's gonna be a big challenge.

Look at that.

It's one hell of a spot to park.

The steep angle of the ditch

is definitely gonna be a big factor for us, today.

Alright, let's go see what we got, here.

The semi, hauling auto parts, swerved to miss an animal,

and ran deep into the median.

The driver was very fortunate when he went into the ditch, here.

He did no damage to the truck or trailer.

Perfect.

Just after 6am,

Kyle Pewtress arrives in the 50 tonne.

Do you want me to run two lines to the front?

For sure. OK.

Kyle gets right to work,

rigging to the front of the tractor...

OK.

And they'll need the rotator to hold onto the heavy back end...

The angle this ditch is on is pretty steep.

I'm gonna run a strap

across the back doors in this trailer

to help keep it upright.

Just add that little bit more stability,

'cause we aren't sure how high the load is stacked.

I'm gonna set the rotator up.

Do you wanna grab me the strap out of the rotator, there?

It's on the other side in the big cabinet.

Yup.

But since Gary bought this truck,

he's been the only one to operate it,

and tonight, Gary's not here.

Never mind, it's over here.

Is it this cabinet?

No, it's the one that's open.

What's in this one? I don't know.

Do you mind, go this way here with it, and that way, it'll...

Yup.

They finally rig the strap in place,

but the new rotator delivers a new problem.

It's not running. What's that?

The pump doesn't seem to wanna work, so, I got no hydraulics, right now.

The new rotator, we're still getting to know the quirks about it.

A lot of it is run by a computer monitor, now,

which is something that we've never seen on any of our other trucks.

It's a lot more technical.

Hit it again, yeah.

Collin needs the hydraulics to run the boom.

Seriously?

Without the pump, the truck's dead.

In Oakville... Here.

At the merge point of two major highways,

John and Brian are rushing to offload the water.

403 westbound, the QEW westbound is a major artery

to get from Toronto to Niagara Falls or Buffalo,

so, a lot of truck traffic goes through here heading south.

We're causing a lot of traffic backup

just taking up the one lane, here.

Let me take some weight and see what happens.

Alright, yeah, come on out, Jay.

Come on out for a sec.

I wanna grab it and see what happens.

The truck isn't empty,

but with traffic building as the morning looms,

John needs to clear the scene.

It's taking some time to get these water bottles out,

so, you know, we figured let's give this another try.

Let's see if we can get it up with half the load in there.

We got most of the weight off the top of the wall,

so we're just gonna put a load on it,

and see if the wall starts coming up with the truck.

You're gonna fully control the roll-over.

I'm gonna follow.

OK, OK.

Are you ready, John?

Let out on the far side.

Johnny, you gotta pick and pull your front over.

Good. OK.

So now, we've got the truck back on its wheels.

Sigh of relief.

Now we'll be able to pick it up, and we'll...

We'll slowly boom up and in.

Up and in. And we'll float it up the hill.

We gotta take this thing

from being on its wheels down in the bottom of the ditch,

to being on its wheels on the shoulder.

OK, boom up.

The truck is already compromised,

and there's still a partial load inside.

We have to be on time, here,

we have to be in sync, really in sync.

Watch, make sure it stays level there, Bri.

Yeah, hold on.

Yeah, there you go. Good.

Go up? Yeah, boom up there, Bri, yeah.

Let's boom in.

Now, as you boom in, you gotta swing that way,

so you're gonna pull...

Pull down on your swing.

And in, right? Yeah.

Boom in?

More...

So boom in and rotate at the same time.

With the limited space, you know,

we gotta get this thing on the shoulder,

and we gotta get it right up close to our trucks

so it doesn't roll off into the ditch, again.

Whoa. Forward, forward, forward.

Forward? Yeah, yeah.

So pull down on your rotate.

Right there, that's good, that's good.

Easy, tiger.

You gotta be very confident.

No room for error, at this point.

Nice and easy, nice and easy.

I think we're good right there, Bri. Set it down.

OK. You're perfect.

OK.

We brought it in, set it down, just flawless.

The job went beautiful.

It went very well, and it looks pretty good.

Still looks like a truck.

We planted the truck two feet off the side of our trucks,

up on the road. It actually worked out awesome.

We'll just hand-bomb it into the truck.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

After a rough start, the recovery has ended well.

OK.

Good job. Well done. Good job, buddy.

And that's not the only reason John's in a good mood.

People are actually catching on to slow down and move over.

They're going nice and slow through here, right now, right?

Maybe they're learning.

Or maybe it's just rush hour, and they can't go fast.

Time to roll.

On the 402 in Strathroy...

Anything?

Collin and Kyle are still troubleshooting

the hydraulic problem.

Gotta figure out if it's just the sensor,

or what it's doing.

Is there anything on the remote that would do this?

There's a lot of unknowns

when you have a different piece of equipment.

No, the remote's not connecting.

Collin has one final idea.

I'm gonna turn it off and on.

A reboot is their last-ditch effort to clear the ditch.

The light's coming on this time.

Crisis averted. We're good.

The new rotator, it's a little...

A little bit of getting used to, that's for sure.

Yeah, we got the pump working again, so now that it's working,

it shouldn't quit on us, which is good.

Now they can move on to solving the real problem.

This guy's down in a pretty steep-angled ditch.

That good there?

It's gonna be definitely a challenge

bringing this thing up without it flopping over.

I like it. OK. Let's get it moving.

We've got the strap around the back of the trailer

to hold this thing up as it's coming up,

and we got Kyle rigged up to the front with two lines.

We're gonna start pulling here,

and seeing what we can do to get this guy up and out.

Ready? Let's go.

Front end's coming up nicely, here.

That's good.

We're just getting the trailer up onto the slope, here.

OK. Hold there.

The semi is moving in the right direction...

Just lookin' at it.

..but it's starting to lean back into the ditch.

We don't know how the trailer's loaded,

whether it's top heavy or not.

If it's a high stack load,

then the tipping point, obviously, gets a little bit closer

to not as much of a lean.

If it's a tall load, it will, definitely, wanna topple over.

I'll just get you to go at about half speed for this next pull.

Just so we can keep an eye on it, OK?

Yup, yeah. Perfect.

Inches, inches at a time.

Ready, Coll? Yeah.

But they're just hitting the steepest part of the climb.

This is where it's gonna get really hard for us.

It just started to creak a little bit.

It's got a pretty good lean, now.

OK, hold on, Kyle.

OK, I'm just gonna put some blocks of wood down

and get that back end coming up a little bit.

Oh, OK.

What I'm trying to do with the blocks

is get the trailer leaning back towards the roadway.

It just takes that extra little bit of angle off the trailer.

It just helps a little bit, but every little bit counts,

especially when you don't know how high it's loaded.

So I'll steer him close as I can to the dotted line

before I start to turn him, OK?

Yup.

You ready? OK.

It's not leaning as hard as it was earlier.

Hold on, Kyle.

Hold.

I think I'm at the max for what I can do.

Collin has run out of winch line.

I'm out of options, here.

Definitely an unnerving feeling,

because we don't know what the trailer wants to do.

Let me snug mine up.

The rest of the pull is all up to Kyle.

OK, let's go.

OK, whoa.

Think that that front tire's off the ground.

Yeah, it is.

I want to move those blocks ahead a little bit.

OK.

You ready? OK.

She's lookin' a lot better, now.

You got it.

OK, that's a good feeling to have that one out of the ditch.

That was quite a bit of a lean.

We got 'er out, no incidents.

We've got it back up on the road.

It's upright. It didn't roll over on us.

There's no extra damage done to this truck.

This is a win all the way around.

This is a good one.

Nice.

And as dawn starts to break...

They got it done, got it up just before the sun's coming up.

Good timing.

The boss has shown up to watch the final stretch.

Well, what did you think?

It's a little nerve-racking, though,

when it's sitting there leaning like that, right?

Your heart's sitting there going, going, going, going.

And yeah, it's...

I get it, I get it.

Managed it just fine.

Thank you. Good job.

I think I got a pass on my report card, here.

Time to pack up this party.

They did a really good job.

It's a good moment that I know

that these guys can pull off a job like this,

and they really don't need me.

Time to head out.

Captioned by Ai-Media ai-media.tv