Original subtitles

Oh, god. This time on Heavy Rescue: 401

Pressure's on! Kevin struggles...

Watch yourselves, guys!

to get on a roll.

Billy's ride's looking like it might be stuck.

Father and son...

Straighten out the wheels, man. I don't know.

are losing their grip...

Let the fun begin.

and a steep slope...

Watch out, watch out, watch out!

brings deep trouble.

NEWSREADER: Well, the roads seem mainly clear across most of Toronto.

No major issues to report.

The last traces of the season's first storm...

are fading across southern Ontario...

A storm that took drivers by surprise.

Now, with the snow behind them, and clear roads ahead...

some drivers are a little too eager to hit the gas pedal.

The sun is shining, the roads are dry and clear,

but it's often on days like this

that we get some of the most serious collisions.

As Sergeant Kerry Schmidt heads east on the QEW through Oakville...

the biggest crash of the day

has thrown the highway into chaos dead ahead.

I'm told we have all but one lane blocked.

The scene is large, with at least two transport trucks.

We have five lanes of the QEW restricted

down to one lane only, and this is a huge issue for traffic.

Traffic is a mess. It's often difficult to get to the scene.

Could you please move over? Thank you.

Let's see if I can get an update here from the scene.

Two heavy tow companies are already on scene,

but the mess is much bigger than just the two semis themselves.

The lead transport truck was hauling coils of steel,

and when it was rear-ended from behind,

it actually sent one of the coils flying off the truck,

onto the ground.

There could have been serious injuries or even fatal injuries

with that kind of an outcome.

As a result of the collision,

we also have debris and fluid all across the highway

that needs to be cleaned up before we can reopen these highways.

Now it's up to us to clean it up.

Clearing out the truck that hit the steel semi...

Me, trying to get in here.

will be a messy job for On Route Towing's Kevin Richardson...

Gettin' my workout today!

All the air lines were ripped off,

so we had to cage the brakes manually to release the wheels,

and that takes a bit of time, right?

Especially trying to get in there between the wheels,

underneath, you're laying in oil, so it's not a clean man's job.

And time is working against Kevin.

Come on... (GROANING)

Toronto-bound traffic is already backing up 15 miles.

We have this wreck closing down every lane except for one HOV lane,

traffic is backed up all the way to Hamilton.

(GRUNTING) My arm's getting sore.

OK, time to get on the shoulder.

The other company's operator hauls away the wreck...

but to clear the backup...

We're going to go to the next one now.

Kevin must now wrangle 10,000 pounds of metal

from the middle of the highway.

When an aluminum roll falls off,

it's not perfectly circular no more, so when it's uneven,

just something you gotta be aware of.

You have to slow down.

You don't want nobody getting hurt or something breaking.

Good. We'll see how this goes, Sal. What do you think?

OK!

It wasn't perfectly balanced. It could break the strap.

I don't want nobody getting hurt.

Uh, watch out, watch out.

Watch yourself, guys! Stop it from spinning.

Holy. Yeah, oh!

Got it? It's spinning very fast.

OK...

It's not what I want,

so I put Sal to hold the strap so it won't spin no more,

just 'cause it's off balance.

All right. Back up!

Good! All right.

The major obstacles are clear, but the lanes can't open just yet.

The collision resulted in all kinds of oil and debris

to be scattered all across the highway.

Kevin's called in a cleanup crew...

but they're stuck deep in the bottleneck.

They're coming down the-- down Bronte Road.

Traffic's jammed. I know.

We need that cleaned up.

OK, let me find him. Come on, man.

Hey, Kabal, I should be there in about, uh, maybe 10, 15 minutes.

100 miles north...

We got a call from a customer that one of his trucks was involved

last night in a collision due to a snowstorm.

Kevin's fellow On Route rotator op

is heading up the 400 toward Gravenhurst.

Hey, Adam? Catch off the lower line here.

Still new to the rotator,

Adam Barczak has looked to Kevin for veteran guidance.

OK!

Kevin comes with over 20 years of experience.

Get your catch line tight.

He's willing to learn, and, uh, yeah, he's great to work with.

That was beautiful.

Adam's love of heavy machinery goes back decades to his boyhood

in Poland.

I was into driving since I was like a kid.

I think the first time I got my hands on a tractor

I was five or six years old, and I went through my mom's garden.

She wasn't too happy about it.

It's snowing a little bit.

With Kevin busy on the QEW, today,

Adam is heading to the biggest job of his career without his mentor.

Look at this. Holy mackerel!

I've done accidents, but nothing in that scale.

When I arrive on scene,

and I look at the wreck, the first thought in my head was,

"Total carnage."

Like, there is nothing left of it.

Wow!

That's a wreck and a half.

This is beyond a simple accident. This is...

this is demolished.

The semi, hauling 40,000 pounds of chicken

through blinding snow, swerved,

smashing through the guardrail and down the slope.

Wow.

I was actually surprised that the driver walked away

from that accident. He's a very lucky guy.

I think...

Well, let's just get down there and take a look at it.

On Route road boss Kabal Litt is sizing up terrain

much less forgiving

than his city-based crew normally faces...

The biggest challenge on this job is the steepness of the slope

from the road.

That slope is about 70 degrees,

it's pretty steep, and it's all rocks.

Let's go down, check it out!

Holy mackerel.

Up north, it's more of a different landscape.

You got rocks, boulders, rock cuts, and trees,

and totally different landscape than in the city.

Watch your ankle!

It was tough getting down there. A lot of slipping and sliding.

OK, there's a big crack in the rail.

The trailer's in pieces, the rails are broken.

Tractor's the same thing. It's pretty bad.

The trailer will be the first thing to go...

Oh, yeah.

and then the tractor, and then the load.

Yeah.

Bringing that trailer and truck out, that's gonna be challenging.

And once darkness hits, it will be impossible.

4:30 - it's dark.

We've got to start packing up everything -

4:00, get out of the highway.

4:00 - 4:30, so we don't have much of a time now.

The sun was going down quick,

and we had to plan the lane closure and the whole recovery.

Oh, boy.

Gonna be a complicated recovery. Everything is demolished.

Mike, where are you?

I need you to just step it up a bit, OK?

On the eastbound QEW in Oakville, traffic is crawling toward the city.

It's already rush hour, so, you know, pressure's on.

Before vehicles can travel the road safely,

a cleanup crew needs to clear the leftover debris,

and that crew is stuck in the backlog.

The sweeper and other vehicles are stuck in traffic,

and we need to find a way to get them here quicker.

Helping manage the scene,

Kerry needs to come up with some way

to get the sweeper truck onto the highway.

If they need an escort,

or need a way of getting up here quicker,

if they can double back to Bronte,

we can get them up the other way, 'cause we can't open these lanes.

Yeah, no, I know. Yeah, he's gotta be fluid.

I'll go talk to these guys

and see if they can get someone to come up here.

Can we get one officer just to shut this lane down,

'cause he'll come the wrong way,

he'll call us when he's at the ramp,

he'll spin back around, come back, double back.

Hello! OK, that's good, OK.

Put your lights on, and the officer is going to come down.

I'm walking up to his car now, OK?

I coordinated with the other officers on scene here

to allow these vehicles to come in the wrong way up the off-ramp.

That's going to speed up our cleanup efforts massively.

I'll bet you we probably saved a good hour and a half.

(WHISTLING)

That's it, we're done.

Let's get the hell outta here.

It's a good feeling when you're ready to get the highway open.

Let's get these commuters moving.

This was a complicated scene, a lot of dynamic issues at play,

and Kevin was great at adapting,

and I know all the drivers who are stuck in traffic

are gonna be very relieved to know that the highways are open,

and traffic should be moving very shortly.

All right.

It's a new day up Highway 11,

and the On Route crew is ready for battle.

OK, let the fun begin? Yup.

I'll start setting up.

In the face of waning daylight,

Kabal made the only safe call he could, to wait for morning.

We can work at the night,

but we prefer not to,

because it's twice as more dangerous in the dark

than to work in the daylight.

But even in safer conditions,

Adam is a long way from his mother's garden back in Poland...

We gotta deal with snow, ice, and boulders,

and just getting down there with our lines,

and all the equipment, all the gear,

is gonna be challenging.

Oops!

and getting the semi back up... It's the fun part.

will be a much bigger challenge. It's stuck. There we go.

We're going to try bringing the trailer out of the ditch

with wheels facing up.

We want to bring it out in one piece,

but there's no structure to the trailer.

There's no walls, there's no roof.

They'll rig from a rotator on each end to pull the trailer free

of its load and drag it upward,

then roll it upright and onto the shoulder.

Once they rig it, give it a little pull, we'll see what we do,

how she's going to adapt.

All right. Put the cable over it.

It's gonna be easier to slide that over the boulders and snow

than dragging it on its wheels up that steep hill.

OK, tell Kabal to winch in. But it won't be an easy ride.

Local operator Nick Kirkham has seen

how this rough terrain can tear apart a trailer.

Disconnecting what's left of the tractor and trailer

just so when we roll it over, there's no kind of, uh,

hidden mysteries that's gonna hang us up.

Ready? Everybody back!

Winch in!

Watch out. Bring it, bring it.

She's rolling.

Hey! Hey!

Stop, stop, hold it, hold it, hold it, hold it.

The floor is detaching, and it's catching,

so it's peeling off, and it's just destroying the back of the trailer.

They need to add more rigging to hold the floor in place.

I'm gonna crawl through this opening. Don't kill me.

Oh, it stinks in here! Rotten chicken.

(GROANING)

Right through here.

They're banking that the added strap will be enough to secure the floor,

and Kabal wants another modification...

I'm thinking we can rig both at the back, and then once it's up there.

Adding an endless loop to the back end will help

when they're ready for the rollover.

Snug it up. It will save time later.

OK, let's, uh, let's give it a little bit of a pull.

See what happens.

But first, they still have to drag the trailer up the slope.

It's right on the rocks.

There's not much structure back there, though!

This thing can snap and go anywhere.

It's coming good, it's coming good.

They've reached the edge intact. OK, I'm in the air!

But now Adam and Kabal need to flip the trailer over the guardrail

onto the road right next to live traffic.

It's a double lane highway.

With two rotators, we can just sit in one lane,

and put everything on the shoulder safely

while the traffic's still going by.

If we roll it, we're going to have to boom out all the way.

Kabal, he's going to do the roll.

I just have to hold onto the front end of the trailer.

Trailer's badly damaged, and we don't know what's going to happen.

I'm going to start doing the roll. Just hold it right there.

Whoa, whoa! Watch out, watch out, watch out!

Aah.

Hold on, hold on, Adam, slow.

Keep lowering it down. Let me do the roll.

On the edge of Highway 11,

Adam Barczak is far off his normal turf.

That's what I'm trying to do. And far out of his comfort zone.

This accident is the biggest that I have to do.

I've done accidents, but nothing in that scale.

Whoa, whoa! Watch out, watch out, watch out!

Aah!

It was coming on, it was gonna land on its wheels,

and next thing you know, it just went the other way.

We didn't have control on it.

It looks like the blue line didn't stay where it was supposed to stay.

As lead operator on the scene, it's up to Kabal to clear the wreck.

This is one of the toughest and hardest recoveries I've ever done.

Kabal?

and his junior operator might have an idea to roll the trailer upright.

What if we roll that way?

We're going to have more control of it.

Yeah, right underneath.

We're going to re-rig it...

OK, tighten it up.

and we're going to try rolling it away from the trucks

instead of towards the trucks,

because we will have more control of it.

Hold the yellow, loosen the blue, that's it.

OK.

Adam will need to initiate the roll...

but he can't get too far ahead of Kabal's rotator on the other end.

Adam, rotate a little bit that way.

With the trailer barely holding together,

too much force on either end will be enough to rip it apart.

Adam, boom up! The odds are 50-50.

It either comes out in one piece, or it comes out in two pieces.

One thing goes wrong, you're looking at a big mess.

A lot of pressure!

The trailer, it's bending on the middle on that spot

where it's weak, so it's a possibility

it's going to just break into two different pieces.

Slowly, slowly.

Very slow, very slow, very slow, yeah.

Very slow, very slow.

There you go.

OK, lower this side now. Lower it, lower it.

Phase one of the recovery is complete,

but success comes with a new wrinkle.

We gonna reposition that truck.

Then we gonna lift it up

and bring it in between two trucks,

and then we'll get one of the wreckers to haul it away.

Lift it up. Yup.

There you go, there you go! There you go!

You're clear. Winch in. There you go, that's it.

Let's go take a look.

Now we have it on the road,

and notice that it's pretty much impossible to tow it the way it is.

It's flexing too much, and it's gonna break down the road.

The trailer won't survive a tow,

and with afternoon light starting to fade,

there's no time to wait for a flatdeck.

What time is it? 12:30.

Oh.

So we're going up to just north of Milton here on Highway 25.

125 miles south, Bill Wright is heading toward Milton,

and a different kind of recovery.

We've got a long-reach zoom boom that has got stuck in a field.

There's the machine right there.

It got stuck doing some maintenance down at a cell-type tower.

Problem being is it's about 200 or 300 yards off the road,

and it's non-accessible with any type of big equipment.

The road going into it was snow covered, about eight inches deep.

Fresh, slippery, every aspect of -

"You shouldn't even go down there" wrote all over it.

But today... Hey, Junior!

there's no choice,

so Bill is bringing some backup, his son, Billy...

You're gonna have anchorability issues.

and the two haven't spent much time as a team.

Bill Jr., you know, kind of broke away at a young age,

did his own thing,

and really didn't spend a lot of time around the family business.

If you come around the side, the belly, she's up off the ground.

I kind of hung back in the shadows for quite a while,

but it's nice to be out and working with the old man,

and getting some more training under my belt.

Good?

Even though Billy is older than his brother,

it's Mitch who's spent years working and bonding with his dad.

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

And while Billy has started taking on more of a role in recoveries...

OK, buddy! Later, man.

this job will be senior and junior's first time working as a duo.

Try a little four-part line.

We didn't see each other every day,

and we lived different styles of lives,

and, you know, he worked other places and not with me.

OK, we'll try it.

To bring him back into the family business and be a part of it,

it's great for me as a father

to, number one, to work with my son, but number two,

to create that personal relationship with my son through work.

So we'll just run a couple of the 3,300-pound straps

in the front two hoops.

Two snatch blocks there,

we'll come off the truck through one,

back to the truck through one, throw it on the ground,

grab the other one out to the truck, back, and mate with that one.

With the boom lift mired in the deep mud,

father and son need to be on the same page.

Bill's gonna do the pulling,

and I'm going to steer and maneuver the manlift from the bucket.

This is nerve-racking.

Try gently, Billy?

Pull on that, Billy?

But so far...

It's stuck.

Billy? Let off!

the team can't get any traction.

The back wheel's not coming up. It's pushing in.

Back up Highway 11, the On Route crew is facing an untowable trailer.

OK, so, trailer's all set on the ground now.

That area, it's a dangerous spot to work on.

The MTO and OPP will not let you do the recoveries at night.

To move the trailer without a flatdeck,

they'll need to somehow make it secure.

You think while we're all set up here,

you could run a line off that and just fold it back?

Fold it? You wanna fold it?

Make it towable. You know what I mean?

If they can fold the trailer over on itself at the weak point,

they might be able to tow it on its rear wheels.

To move it safely off the scene fastest...

put a crack on that aluminum floor...

and then we fold the trailer.

Once they've cut away any rigid structure,

they'll hold the trailer

and then lift and pull the front end over onto the wheels.

OK!

It sounds crazy, but, uh, I've worked with Nick,

and I've worked with Kabal on numerous jobs,

and I have a faith in them.

I already know this is not going to be fun!

Moving that a little bit at a time.

My biggest concern is we're working next to a live lane of traffic.

That front piece, it could go anywhere.

It could go back into the ditch,

or it could just swing and go into the live lane of traffic.

Kabal! That's going to swing into the oncoming traffic, man!

Hold on, wait! Wait! Hey!

It's gonna swing into the oncoming traffic, man.

Hold on, wait! Wait! Hey!

On Highway 11 in Gravenhurst... Stop!

the plan to bend the trailer...

If that swings into the cars, I don't want to be a part of it.

is hitting the breaking point.

It might go into that one lane of traffic, and next thing you know,

it hits somebody's car.

Kabal's goal was to keep a lane of traffic open,

but public safety must come first.

Can you do it for-- for two minutes?

If you let me know when you want to do it.

Um... Right now?

Right now? I'll give you guys the signal...

OK. and you guys can do that.

OK.

We're just waiting for the signal from MTO.

Coordinating the closure takes time,

and the winter sun will be down in just two hours.

We have to be out of there by 4:15, because it gets dark.

It's dangerous. Good? All right, guys! Let's go!

Lift it up!

Adam! Adam, let go! Let go slowly!

Good! Clear the road.

Yeah, we're good. Thank you!

Swing the boom this way now.

A little bit more.

Put it down, put it down, put it down.

There ya go!

The guys are just about to secure it,

and haul it away,

and that's one puzzle of this recovery is being removed.

Go, go, go!

But the trailer was just the beginning.

There's still 20,000 mangled pounds of truck

they have to somehow pull up the rocky slope.

It's 3:00 p.m.,

and we still have the tractor to recover,

and we literally have less than two hours of daylight,

so we're running out of time.

It's gonna be tricky.

It's gonna be a tough one, that's for sure, buddy.

It's pulling a lot of mud on that back wheel, eh?

Back near Milton... Pretty soft, eh?

Yeah. father and son are stuck.

The left wheels are totally buried,

and as we're pulling this thing,

it doesn't want to pop up out of the ruts.

It's just digging a trench.

Straighten out the wheels. I don't know.

But Billy...

Keep going. There you go, that should be all right.

Ready? Go ahead.

refuses to let his father down.

It keeps ploughing mud,

so we've gotta try to keep winching it off to the left here

to try to get it on some harder ground.

The back wheel's not coming up. It's pushing in.

It's getting deeper?

No, I think we're getting out of the thick, right?

Like, we're going to get onto harder and harder stuff.

I think we're gonna be all right.

But you gotta just keep working on it,

and when you run into a problem, try to stay motivated,

and try to figure out how to do it.

Bill Junior brings a lot of common sense to the game.

If you don't have that,

it's hard to move to the next step of learning.

We're good now, I think.

Now we've got it up on the driveway.

There's a large grade between us and the paved road.

Do you want to get the white truck out of the way?

Do you want to get that unrigged, then?

They've reached the edge of the driveway...

See how he does.

but Billy needs to move his truck

before they can navigate to the road.

Certainly Billy's ride is looking like it might be stuck!

Unfortunately with the single wheels and an all-season-type tyre

rather than kind of a rugged tyre,

it just, it wouldn't get out of its own way.

So Bill Senior heads to the rescue. Huh.

It's not so good.

You know, you're not making it any better.

Just north of Milton... (LAUGHING)

the father-son boom rescue is slipping away...

Nobody would even believe it! (GIGGLING)

But for Bill, today is about more than the simple success of any job.

As a dad, it's like taking another one of my kids,

and, you know, giving them something to be proud of.

Whoo!

Had a few challenges, had a few laughs.

Here, let me give you what you need.

You know, Bill and I got to spend some, uh,

some quality time together.

Keep going!

It was good to bond, father and son.

We don't get to work together very often,

and we're having a few laughs together here,

and he's got a big grin on his face,

and it's just good to get together with Bill and do a job like this.

Spacing 'er up. There we go. That's better.

It's nice to be on the wrecks with the old man,

and spending some time together.

You might have to boom up a bit.

These are the moments that we'll look back on and laugh about.

These are the ones you remember, right?

Almost there! I earned my cold beer tonight!

Bill's a young man now,

and we didn't have that bond in previous years,

and I just enjoy being here with him.

OK, hold it there? Hold it.

Whether we're, you know, pulling a pickup truck out,

or whether we're rolling a transport over,

it's just really cool to have him beside me.

Back up Highway 11... Just toss it over.

the sun is sinking fast,

and Adam and Kabal are facing unfriendly terrain.

OK! We're good!

I'm gonna have to be really careful here.

There's a lot of rocks.

I don't want to damage any kind of oil pan.

Watch the bumper.

Hold, hold, hold it! The rocks.

If we rip that oil pan,

or puncture it, it's not just a clean-up,

but, uh, it's an environmental issue.

Kabal! Let me pull the-- put those skids.

but in the pile of debris,

the junior operator sees a possible solution.

We gonna build a superhighway here.

We're going to use the skids

to kind of just protect everything from hitting the rock.

Need one more here.

It's not a move in the wreckmaster manual...

We need more.

but if it works, they have a shot to clear the scene before nightfall.

(COUGHING) It stinks!

Covered in chicken!

Just put it there.

There you go, Kabal. Both of them, slowly.

It's going!

Oh, yeah.

So far, it's working. The tractor is intact.

Kabal, watch it. but as it ascends the slope...

Adam! it's starting to lean.

It's trying to roll over on me. So with daylight running dry...

Let's set you up right away.

Kabal enlists Adam to rig two more lines.

As I pull, you just help me that it doesn't go.

There's this possibility it might just roll over

the way the trailer did.

All right, do the back one now.

All right, run this there.

We just have to put this line. It's not going to take us long.

Yeah. MTO came up to me, the supervisor.

He's like, "You gotta shut down, you gotta shut down."

As soon as they're done hooking up, out.

Guys!

Let's go! Daylight! We gotta get out of here!

I just hope it doesn't roll on us.

Whoa, no! It's such a steep angle. It wants to roll on its side.

As they reach the shoulder...

Just go around the axle. Loop it around.

the crew needs to add another line to secure the final lift.

All right. All right, let's do it.

Loosen the yellow slowly as I'm pulling.

Adam, pull! Adam had to pull it towards him...

Keep pulling, keep pulling!

and at the same time, I had to lift it over the guardrail post.

We've been here a full day.

The sun is setting,

and MTO wants to reopen the lane,

so we're at maximum pressure right now.

Let's start bringing it over. Both cables in!

Four inches, Kabal!

Watch yourself!

Go, pick it up. Boom up! Boom up! Keep pulling!

There ya go! Got it! Done!

It was a nerve-racking job, but we got it. Team effort.

We got it out. That's what matters.

A cleanup crew will finish clearing debris in the morning.

Guys, we have ten minutes. Let's pack it up.

but as the sun drops low,

Adam's career has reached a new high.

This wreck was more difficult,

and a lot different from what I'm used to.

I learned a lot from it,

and I can take that experience on to the next job.

With Adam, he learned pretty fast.

Next time, I know Adam can handle everything.

I love my job, I love my job.

15 miles north-east of Toronto...

B and G, Mitch speaking. Mitch Wright is hard at work...

Hey, Owen, how are you?

but it's much different work than he's used to.

We got the opportunity to expand our business

and move up into Bancroft.

There was a lot of talk amongst the family

as to kind of who was going to step up and take that role,

and, you know, I put my hand up and jumped on it

as soon as I heard about it.

Awesome. We'll see you tomorrow. OK, bye-bye.

My role in Bancroft here is the operations manager.

I take care of pretty much all the day-to-day operations.

My dad's back in Courtice,

so it's just me up here, so it's kind of my gig.

At the beginning of all this,

I wasn't sure if I was, you know, 100% ready to do it...

but I bit the bullet,

and I got up here, and you know what?

I'm making it happen.

Yeah, for me, you know,

I've left pretty much everything that I know back at home,

and so it's been a pretty big change for me to come up here,

and, you know, kind of start

from scratch, in a sense, and, um, just, kinda, you know,

work a little bit at it every single day,

and try to get it to where it needs to be.

He's gonna be the face of B and G. He's 22 years old.

He's got the local community to deal with. It's a small town.

I have the utmost faith in Mitch to get up there

and put on a good show for us.

While his father and brother are handling the big recoveries,

Mitch is travelling his own road.

This is one of those opportunities my dad's giving me,

and it's definitely one

that I'm not going to take for granted.

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