Original subtitles

This time on Heavy Rescue 401.

Going to load 'er up on the dump truck.

Steve faces a blazing backup.

These wires could go at any given time.

The Bear takes on... I don't like this at all.

..a tense recovery...

..and an icy rollover...

Don't fall off, Mike!

..gives Cornwall... There's ice here!

..the slip. Whoa! Mike!

After a smooth night on the highways of Toronto,

the sun is ready to rise...

..but just as early morning traffic is hitting its peak...

..trouble erupts on the westbound 401.

Every day there's something, you know what I mean?

Behind the fire crews, Steve Pillai is also heading for the scene.

As dawn turns to morning,

firefighters have put out the flames.

Where's Dino?

But the tractor was hauling two trailers

when the brakes overheated...

Start caging the brakes.

..leaving a big, burned-out mess for Steve and his crew.

Because all the wires are, like, burnt,

I have to cage these brakes to release the brakes.

Today, a lot of the work will fall on Dino Jeyakumar.

Lux, watch your face.

After Steve parted ways with Sonny Subra last summer,

every young member of Steve's heavy crew

has had to rise to the challenge.

That's good.

I just lift it up, and the float can winch it out, right? Yeah, man.

Dino first climbed into a one-ton four years ago.

Keep on the other side.

Today, on this recovery, he's Steve's go-to operator.

Sonny is gone, so Steve's is depending on me,

so I'll have to step up.

Just put it up in the air, Dino.

Hey, it's still smoking, eh?

Dino needs to separate the two burned-out trailers

to clear them individually,

and with this much heat, he needs to watch for any flare-ups.

Still pretty hot.

Yeah, it's too hot.

You don't know fire's done, or fire's not done.

It's still smoking.

It start on fire again! It's burning again!

On North America's busiest highway, closure is not an option.

It's burning again.

The fire crew douses the flames...

It's a good thing it's empty.

Otherwise, it's going to be a disaster. OK, that's' good.

With the westbound express down to one lane,

the delay has only increased the pressure.

Pull up ahead a little bit, let's see what happens.

Now it's my job to get the highway open.

Turn, turn, turn! Back up.

Steve's believing in me like, I can do this.

OK. Get him out of the highway. Go in front of the boss truck!

The crew has the first trailer hooked up and on its way...

Keep going.

..but the second truck needs to be loaded onto their flatbed,

or "float"...

We are waiting for the float truck.

Because all the tires are like burnt, we can't tow it.

It has to be floated.

But the float truck is caught somewhere in the backup.

It's the time of day, you know what I mean? Traffic everywhere,

you know what I mean, so it's gonna be difficult to get here.

Kennedy, where are you guys, Kennedy?

Have an idea how much longer we're gonna be?

They're on the way.

Where are you guys now?

125 miles southwest,

heavy snow has been battering the highways around London.

It's pretty icy. The driving lane's all ice there.

The entire Ross Services crew has been hard at work

all morning on the 401 and 402.

There's a couple more went in last night,

so we'll deal with them sometime.

On the westbound 402, just before Strathroy...

Morning, guys, got one out, got more to go.

Rick "Bear" Renders answers the latest call.

I've been called by the OPP to go to the 402.

There's a tractor-trailer sitting on top of a bridge,

but it's ready to fall over.

I have to get there as quick as I can.

We'll see what we get, when we get there. Hopefully, it'll all be OK.

We're in a bad situation here.

We're on the downward side of a hill, and also on the far side

of a bend, so vehicles that are coming up behind us, don't see it

till they're up over top of the bridge, and I'm right here.

These wires could go at any given time.

This truck is being held by these guidewires

on probably a 60-degree lean. It's ready to fall over.

The semi, loaded with close to 10,000 pounds, lost control,

sliding off the edge of the road and right into the guardrail.

He got real lucky.

These three little guidewires caught his truck before it went over.

He would have went down about 50 yards into the ditch,

upside-down, definitely, maybe rolled over twice.

Those three cables are all that's fighting against

40,000 pounds of gravity.

So, if I pull this thing from the front,

the trailer will slide in, so I'm going to grab the trailer first,

pull it sideways, then go to the front and get him out.

Just gotta watch this frickin' traffic, man.

Slow down!

These guys, they... slow down.

They just don't understand.

Bear needs to ease the trailer sideways, gently.

I do not want this load to shift, because if it does,

it might put too much stress on the guidewires,

and it'd go down the hill.

Well, let's see what happens.

Watch those guidewires don't clap back!

Guidewires are free of the trailer.

It's coming good, but for some reason, it wants to lift on me.

That don't look good.

The angle of my truck and the cable is lifting the back of the trailer,

and I don't want that.

It's starting to scare me.

I'd like to bring it over a little bit more,

so I'm going to go down a little bit.

Bear wants to redirect the angle of his pull.

It is on a good lean, so I wanna go low to pull the trailer down,

and drag it up the gravel onto the pavement.

Redirection on these things is very important.

Beautiful! Beautiful job.

The trailer's on the road, but still teetering,

so Bear needs to move to phase two.

I'm going to go to the front now and grab the truck.

I just gotta check the guidewires, make sure where they're sitting.

Oh, man! The guidewires have jumped the back of the frame of the truck.

The guidewires are jammed right over the frame rail,

under the fifth wheel plate.

They're not gonna jump free of that. I don't like this at all.

We've got a major traffic situation on the west 401

express lanes at Kennedy.

Delays are extremely extensive.

On the eastern edge of Toronto, the morning commute is a mess...

It's the morning rush hour.

The traffic is backing up all the way to Pickering.

But the Steve's Towing crew can't cart away the burned trailer

until they load it onto their float truck...

Let's go, fast as you can.

..and the float truck is stuck in traffic.

The tire guy's here. Some help has arrived...

Hey, Gary, how are you?

Steve's tire repair technician, Gary,

ready to replace the tires so the crew can clear the tractor.

Why didn't you guys just bring the float down for this?

We're waiting for the float. Oh, ho, ho, ho.

I know you guys wanna open, but I'm doing my best.

It's a mess, you know? We're trying to do it, but...

The police are giving us a pressure.

They want to open the highways.

The float truck is still at least 20 minutes away,

but with the tire tech on scene, Steve's young operator has an idea.

Boss, we can do one thing.

You know what, tell Gary to take all the tires,

just put two tires in the back.

If they can salvage two wheels still in decent shape

and move them to the rear axle, they might be able

to tow the trailer off the road, without waiting for the float...

Can we do that, or no? I'm gonna do what I can.

But just finding two useable rims is a challenge.

Even if you move it, the bearings are cooked out of it.

This rim is OK?

Bring the dump truck, and load it up in the dump truck.

The back rim's burned so bad and damaged,

so we salvaged a couple of rims,

then put the tires in the back, so we can be able to move it out.

We're gonna roll with the two back tires, we got a dump truck there.

One trip, one's done, that's ready to go. Alright.

Do you have a cutter, bro?

The officer is coming every 20 minutes, like,

"Are you guys done? Is it ready? Is it ready to go?"

Should I cut it on the outside? There's a lot of tire debris.

It's a big job. We're ready to go. OK.

After just ten minutes, Gary's installed tires on the two rims,

but they need to do a test pull...

OK, take the wood out.

..to see if the wheels will even turn.

That's it!

OK, that's-that's... They're going.

Got it? Are we all ready?

Go, go, go, go!

OK, that's it. We're gonna roll this one out.

Perfect! Let's go, Dino, let's go!

Get 'em out of the highway.

Let's go, let's go! Finally, the job is everything done.

We good to go. We gonna clear off the highway.

It's a success for a young crew facing a baptism of fire.

The beginning, I was very nervous, then as soon as the job was done,

I was very, very happy, and Steve was very happy too.

Let's go, guys.

I got a couple of young crew.

They're interested to get onto this business.

You know, I brought them on board, why not? Go, go, go, go, go. Go!

Every job is like learning, you know?

Every day, you learn something. Makes me feel very good.

Brakes off! Turn the wheels!

Back on the 402 west of London,

Bear is still fighting to dislodge the cables from the tractor...

Brakes! Put 'em on!

I gotta go underneath here, try and get these guidewires off.

One cable is jammed under the fifth wheel plate.

Turn that way!

But the more he pulls, the more tension he's putting on the cables.

Oh, that don't look good.

Hold it! As I'm pulling, I'm noticing a lot of resistance.

When I go to release it, it's going to swing back this way at Mach 3.

These guidewires do not like me.

Are you hooked up in it? Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

I'm gonna get some tools and try and use brute force

to pull these over.

They're on this side of that guide... Oh, that's good.

..that frame rail... Yeah.

..so when I get them up, it should come out.

So, hopefully this little bar here can help me get it out.

Oh, man, there's a lot of tension on that.

It ain't worth losing my life over.

It's that other one, that inside one, that I'm worried about.

I'm probably gonna have to cut that, but if I get the cutting torch out,

I don't know which way the cables are going to go.

Hey, come over here! If that lets go, it'll cut you in half!

If he has any hope of freeing the tractor...

I gotta cut 'em.

Bear can't leave the cables intact.

It doesn't have any integrity now! I know.

But the OPP has word from the Ministry...

leaving the slope without a guardrail

will be too dangerous for other drivers.

I got the truck out,

but I got the guidewire is jammed between the frame.

The only way to get it out is to cut it,

and this guy from the Ministry won't let me cut it,

so I don't know what we're gonna do.

I gotta cut 'em.

It doesn't have any integrity now! I know.

Working on a blind curve on the 402,

Bear Renders needs to free the stuck semi, fast...

The three wires on the side of the road, that's the only thing

holding this truck from flipping over and going down this ravine.

But those cables are refusing to untangle from the truck.

Barred from cutting them, Bear's come up with plan B.

I've tried by my hands to get this thing off, I've used pry bars.

The only thing stronger than me is my tow truck.

They won't let me do it my way, I'll try something else.

I'm gonna see if I can lift the guidewires up

and get it over the frame.

Bear will hook his winch line directly onto the guardrail cables,

then pull upward to wrench the cables free...

Turn your wheels to the right! I need you to back up.

That's one out of three. A little more!

A little more!

Hold it! That's two!

I've got two out of three, we're doing good.

That other one's gonna be a pain in the ass. Back up a little bit more!

Keep going! Hold it!

But the final cable is proving stubborn.

Well, he's gonna have to live with losing one out of three.

She's jammed right underneath this frame.

I got two out of three, I gotta cut one.

You gotta cut one, that's fine.

I got permission to cut the last one.

The gentleman from the Ministry gave me permission

as long as he's got the other two cables,

so if a car does hit it before they get it repaired,

it won't go over this hill.

These pylons will stop it from hitting the truck.

There's so much tension on it.

I've gotta keep an eye and see which way this cable's gonna fly.

So I'm gonna cut it real slow with my torches.

We're good.

It's always good to have a cutting apparatus in your truck.

Pull ahead!

I love my job.

Now, Bear can answer his next call.

One down, more to go.

This is the winter we've been waiting for.

This is one of the harder recoveries that I've done by myself.

I know I've been in the industry 30 years, but every job is difficult.

Every job is different.

The next morning brings clear skies to Toronto,

and a quiet commute on the roads below.

But at the Compass Traffic Operations Centre,

operators keep careful watch over the highways...

Thank you, 10-4.

..and just after 11:00 a.m,

one camera captures the moment that a calm morning comes to a sudden end.

Orillia five tango forty-three.

Sergeant Dan Hunter heads toward the scene,

right where the 401 connects to Highway 427.

It's a very busy ramp,

and that is also how you get to the Pearson Airport,

so an international airport in Toronto that's extremely busy.

We want to try and fix that up as quickly as we can.

Impatient drivers are making bad decisions.

We have a tractor-trailer that was hauling a load of lumber.

It has rolled on its side, and not a great situation right now.

In fact, we're actually watching vehicles drive over this lumber.

You got a whole bunch of stupid happening just in front of you.

Yeah, no kidding.

Just when I think I've seen everything on this highway,

there's always something new that comes up.

The people that were driving, they could be on foot at the crash scene,

and they're not protected in any way.

That's a dangerous situation.

This is uncontrollable. This is ridiculous.

Yeah, this is ridiculous. No kidding.

On a ramp from the 401 to the northbound 427,

drivers are barreling over a load of spilled lumber...

Here we are.

..and Constable Dan Hunter needs to help manage the scene

and clear the road.

Here we go. I'm going to go for a walk and see this lumber.

Crash trucks roll in, blocking access for traffic.

I can see the tire marks on the lumber,

and it wasn't just cars, 'cause I can see truck tracks on that.

If you make the decision to drive over top of it,

you can't steer properly, you can't brake or accelerate properly,

and I'm sure your insurance company would be very interested to know,

you made the decision to drive over top of it instead of stopping.

Now, the main route north to the airport is cut off.

As northbound drivers are forced to continue eastward,

the bottleneck is causing a major backup.

The MTO's keeping track of us on the camera.

They want to know when it's going to be reopened.

A heavy recovery crew is already uprighting the overturned trailer.

This is where it was rubbing on the ground.

Dan wants to collect all the evidence he can

before they clear the ramp to reopen.

The trailer itself is connected to the truck here with this hitch,

but this part of the trailer has its own fifth wheel attachment.

This one articulates in two points,

and that might have been a factor in this crash as well.

It sort of amplifies that sway, so when it starts to wobble,

it's hard to recover that.

Bear in mind when you're driving around trucks,

they don't react like cars do.

If you make a lane change in front of a truck,

you don't leave enough room for them,

or you cut them off, the driver has to react to that,

and their reaction could very easily turn into something just like this.

What time is it? Just before 3:00.

Oh, perfect.

There are many moving parts to these collisions,

these recoveries, but everybody has the same common goal.

We want to recover the vehicles,

we want to get the traffic moving again,

so that we can get the highway back to normal.

Alright, that's it. Lumber's off. We're good to go.

Let's re-open the road.

It's a rewarding part of my job to look back in the rear-view mirror,

and see that everything is moving the way that it should be.

It's a good feeling.

250 miles east, after a night of heavy snow,

day breaks just west of Cornwall...

..and the morning light reveals a casualty of the storm,

right in the middle of the 401.

20 miles down the highway...

I'll see you guys out there. Got another big one going on.

Duncan Cooper and the Cornwall Towing crew...

Who's that? ..answer the call.

It's just above freezing.

But the weather is changing,

and the crew will be fighting a tight deadline.

This job here, is in a very, very deep ditch,

and it's a race against the weather.

There's another strong system coming in.

If we get hammered, we have to shut down.

Duncan scouted the scene earlier this morning.

As he rolls up, he's already worked out a plan.

Right now, we got 20 minutes.

The OPP is just providing us a temporary lane closure.

Come on, a chain, let's go!

We only got 20 minutes! OK, go get your legs out, I'll rig, OK?

They'll upright the semi from the other side of the median,

in the eastbound lanes.

This preliminary phase is just to place the semi in a better position.

The plan is to slide the trailer up,

maybe about five, six feet away from the shoulder,

so when it lands here, it's not uphill, it's right in the middle.

So when we go around, and stand it up on the other side,

everything should go according to my plans.

Uh, drag winch and the yellow line.

As they rig up to position the semi,

Bill Ewing from Bill's Towing has arrived to help.

Tighten it up! We're under pressure to get that tractor-trailer out.

Somebody else coming down through could run into us.

Are you ready? Yup!

OK, guys, pull! OK. Go ahead!

Work that tow truck!

As they make the first pull, the piling snow

and 20,000-pound load of oranges are already putting up a fight.

Drag line's pulling it...

Keep going, I'm watching! Keep going!

Whoa, whoa! You're gonna tip that truck.

I'm watching, don't worry! Matt, pull!

Whoa, that's it. That's it! Let 'er off. Whoo-hoo!

When we stand this tractor-trailer up now,

it'll be right sort of dead centre in the middle of the ditch.

Perfect! Yeah. Let 'er off, unchain, let's go!

So, it's time to relocate to the eastbound side of the highway.

Onto phase two. Yup.

You're good right where you are.

If Duncan's judged correctly,

the semi is in the perfect spot to land on flat ground.

What we're gonna do, we're gonna chain up on that bottom corner

over there, and we're gonna bring a strap around over the top, OK?

To keep the walls and roof intact, Duncan's banking on

a complex rigging system called the "Christmas Wrap."

It's like you're wrapping a present. With a bow.

They'll use criss-crossing lines to straps on either end

to lift the trailer, while low lines pull down on the underside.

OK, Mikey, throw your strap right over. Perfect!

You're doing like an arm-wrestling effect to help pull it over.

So, we gotta get on the roof! Yeah, do you want that fun job?

I'll go on it.

Somebody basically has to get up on top of the trailer

to hook the lines and position the straps where you want.

Just put your feet up on the wheels. I'll be able to pass you the hooks.

It could be slippery,

and you have to be mindful of that person up there, they don't fall.

Today, the volunteer is the oldest member of the crew, Mike McPhee.

I don't want to just stand around. Just hook up, and let's get it out.

OK! Just be careful, Mikey, don't wipe out.

'Kay! Mikey self-nominates for that.

You know, I always offer. "Well, we can send a younger guy up."

"No, no, no, no!" Up he goes.

Elevate the boom some, Barry? Yup.

I'm a worker, I don't stop.

I've been doing it all my life, just keep going.

Some days are rougher than other ones.

Hang on, Mike, just in case it moves. Pull it in!

Hi-ho! Whoa!

Hold on, Mike! She's slippery.

I saw him doing a little slipping and sliding.

I'm like, "Oh, here we go."

Don't fall off, Mike!

Just be careful, Mikey. Don't wipe out! 'Kay!

There's ice here! Slippery.

20 miles east of Cornwall...

Over here, Mouse!

..the oldest member of the Cornwall crew

is taking on the riskiest part of the rigging.

Mikey's 62, but, I mean, he's got balance like a cat.

OK, bring it over here, Mouse!

OK. We'll just throw it at ya.

Mike has never shied away from hard work,

even after he sold his own trucking business to Duncan.

He said, "You know, if you ever need any part-time help driving

in the winter, or something like that, you should give me a call."

So, I give him a call, and he never left.

Bit more, Barry? A bit more? Yeah.

She's close, boys.

It's a challenge. Every day, it's a different job.

Like, you don't do the same thing all the time,

and they're good people to work for. I enjoy it.

Get 'er, Mike? I got it!

Mike's got the strap in place.

Want me to pull it in? Tighten it up!

So, it's time to see if the Christmas Wrap

will provide the support they need with the load of oranges inside.

The gamble with this move can be,

you'll get halfway through a lift and realize you made a mistake,

and the trailer starts to split and crack.

Tighten up the front a bit!

I really don't want to have to call the customer

and say we broke the trailer in half.

Lift up on your straps a bit!

Say again? Top line!

Both lines!

The top lines!

OK! Tighten the bottom lines!

A little bit, not too much.

A little bit more! Little bit more!

OK, hold on.

The trailer has held together.

Damn it.

But it hasn't landed dead centre on level ground.

Not quite what I wanted, Bill. Um...

We may be in trouble here.

The semi is leaning so much,

that some of the wheels are hovering off the ground.

Problem with a job like this, it's not a precise science.

I mean, there's variables you can't control.

Before they can get the semi out of the ditch,

they need to set down all 18 wheels.

Let's try it there!

When he starts pulling,

I'm just gonna get you to slowly let out the lines as he goes.

Operator Barry will slowly pull forward,

while Matt tries to hold the trailer upright as it rolls.

Whenever you're ready.

They need Mike to steer, ensuring the truck heads onto flat ground,

or risk tipping it back over.

OK, let 'em out a bit, Matt.

Whoa! Tighten your lines up!

OK.

Mikey, turn your steering wheel to the left just a little.

A little more! Left! Left!

You know, I just can't do it like you said!

They were pulling one way on the winch,

and I was trying to steer it straight,

but it was, one wheel was full of mud.

Can you jump up there and grab the steering wheel with him?

Try and pull it, Bill. Yeah, keep going, there we go.

Good right there, that's good.

Thank you, Bill, needed that extra hand. Yeah.

Couple of old-timers,

we can fight and overcome just about anything,

and in this case, we overcome the winch.

Starting to level out now!

OK, hold on, Barry! Matt, let off!

The semi is stable, but now they're facing a steep slope

to get it up to the road, until Duncan spots another option...

We gotta reposition some things.

Once we stood it up, I saw an advantage.

I wonder if we lower your boom right down... And drive ahead?

...lift the legs, lock the power divider,

and just pull low and ahead...

I think it'd pull. I think it should.

...and just crawl, just to speed this up a little bit.

Up the road, there's a turnaround

where the ditch levels right out flat.

Instead of fighting, trying to get this loaded trailer

up and over the embankment, just gonna pull ahead,

and as it goes ahead, there's a flat spot up there

it's gonna come right up onto, and that's where we're going with it.

He's gonna drive ahead, so be ready.

Ready! Straight ahead, up to the flats.

You're staying pretty straight.

The improvised plan is working,

but there's still a lot of ground to cover to make it to the turnaround.

We don't know what's under the snow in the ditch.

It should be frozen, but might not necessarily be.

We can't see under the snow.

She's flattening out here, too, eh? Keep 'er that way... There you go.

Keep 'er that way.

If you hit a really big soft spot,

you're gonna now be fighting the weight, 'cause it's gonna sink down,

and if it's on one side,

it could actually try and make the trailer tip.

Run right along in here. Oh!

They're pulling us up now.

We have to get back over that way,

or we're going to tip it over, right? Yeah.

Oh... Yeah, there's a soft spot.

You can see how the back end's sunk right down.

Bottom of the ditch could be soft enough to just go...

Aw... There goes my plan.

Sunk right down in a hole.

If the weight of the trailer sinks down,

we're gonna roll it back over on its side,

and I'd really rather not have to pick it up again.

It'd be a difficult phone call to make. Like, "Hey,

you know, uh, we almost had it, and we're starting over again!"

We better just use the winch.

So, instead of driving the wrecker forward, they switch to the winch,

hoping for a more controlled pull.

We gotta get him back over that way.

Mikey, just keep 'er right centre of the ditch, if you can! OK!

I gotta really keep an eye on what we're doing here.

She's levelling back out. Yeah, she's coming. Yeah.

Keep her coming straight to ya.

OK, she's out of the water. You're on the hard there.

You sure? Yeah. OK.

OK, what's your plan?

They still have to tow it away.

Ready? Yeah!

From this side of the highway, they can tow the tractor backwards...

That's good.

But that's not an option for the trailer, and rotating it 180 degrees,

would require shutting down all eastbound traffic.

Yeah, OK, real slow.

My plan here is use the advantages

and try not to disrupt the highway as much as possible

by having to shut it down, so we can spin things around.

Right there.

Hey, look at that.

Oh, yeah, all power, man.

So Duncan will forge a path across the median

to the westbound side of the highway.

There we go! I thought it was pretty cool.

You know, I knew there was a lot of snow there.

I did bring my plow for the front of my pickup truck.

OK, up. Come out good! Come out good.

It worked. The plan worked.

He does a lot of good planning, and a lot of his ideas, they work out.

You guys ready to go?

With the route plowed and ready...

Alright, let's get this thing off the highway. We're done.

Wha-hey-hay! Good job, boys!

..the end is in sight.

Whoo-hoo!

We can get the highway back open again.

How ya doin', buddy? How ya doin'?

As usual, I'm proud of my guys. They're good guys.

I love working with my guys, and that was a good job.

(DOG BARKS EXCITEDLY)

Captions edited by Ai-Media ai-media.tv