Original subtitles

Go, go, go!

-This season... -There!

...on Highway Thru Hell...

-Oh! -Holy...

Huh.

I can't believe this guy lived.

Holy.

She's gonna go over.

Whoa!

Ooh, that's tippy, eh?

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!

Broke the hook!

Yee-hoo!

-Hey! -Whoa!

Look at us go.

It's better than a ski hill.

Whoa!

This is nuts.

You gotta be a little nuts to be in this business.

I don't want to have an explosion.

Watch out!

Hey, hey!

Throttle off!

Whoa!

This is what we live for.

Here we go, buddy.

Late fall...

...brings early snow...

...to the Rocky Mountains.

It's been a long summer,

and this is our first taste of winter.

Running a 50-tonne heavy...

We're working all across the province.

...500 kilometres from his base in Hope...

We're just going

wherever the customers need us.

...Jamie Davis

rolls into southeast British Columbia.

As night falls...

We're just headed out to a wreck

that's apparently on its side.

...Jamie is called to a crash...

...on Highway 1.

A tractor-trailer's flipped right over,

and it's down a bank.

Rolling in with HR100...

Supposed to be just a light load,

5,000 pounds.

...Jamie arrives for the recovery.

Might as well just park here.

Whoa.

Looking at this wreck,

it's almost completely upside down.

Well, boys, she's down there pretty good.

Yeah, it's brutal.

Charging down the Trans-Canada Highway,

HR130...

I'm just headed out to meet Jamie at a wreck.

...with operator Rob Wall.

I've done quite a few wrecks together now with Jamie.

Must have been a good ride for the guy

driving it down.

The semi came around a corner...

lost control...

tumbling deep into the ditch.

You know, Rob,

I think you gotta be facing this way.

We're gonna put the 50-tonne on the back of this unit...

...to handle the trailer and whatever load it has,

and we're going to use the 30-tonne on the front,

on the tractor.

This white California 50-tonne

is really taking the place of the rotator

while it's in for repair.

Last season...

...Jamie and his rotator

were involved in a devastating crash...

Cab's blown right off the back end.

...knocking the machine

out of commission indefinitely.

I'm glad I got the 50-tonne.

It's a big, big horse.

Big hunk of iron.

Right here.

Rob positions HR130

in line with the tractor.

You're really under time pressure

when they shut down a lane of traffic,

'cause they don't like shutting it down

for any more than they have to.

Pull 'em off there, Martin.

Helping tonight,

swamper Martin Stefek...

A little more, Bran.

...and Jamie's stepson, Brandon Kodallas.

This is the first wreck of the season.

I'm gonna be Jamie's swamper today.

'Kay, right there, stop.

We'll get it done.

Okay,

you've got your block now,

and you've got your snatch block.

Run both of them down to there.

This bank is steep.

We'll make a path down to it,

but it is straight up and down.

Help him pull the winch line

once he gets over the bank there, right?

Go ahead, Martin, pull some line out.

Go down there with him?

It's pretty dangerous being on an angle like that.

That's straight down.

The main objective right now

is just to get it up the bank

and have it on its side right here.

Okay, good to go!

Okay.

We're starting to do the pull...

...and it's really working my big wrecker.

The winches are powering out.

Something's wrong.

You can hear the stress in the machine

for such a light load.

Okay, stop.

You know, that wants to roll over right there.

Something's not adding up here.

But he said it's only 5,000 pounds.

500 kilometres southwest...

...in the Fraser Valley...

...B.C. Highway Patrol

are on the scene of a dry-weather crash.

This is a bit

of an anomaly year for us.

It really doesn't look like winter right now,

but we are at the start of the winter season,

and people need to be prepared.

The semi drifted off the highway,

caught the shoulder,

sucking it into the median,

only held back

by a high-tension cable barrier.

I'm amazed no lives were lost.

Nobody was injured.

Not even the driver of the semi.

Heading to the scene...

We're gonna see what she's made of tonight.

...Reliable Towing's new 50-tonne tandem,

Hornet.

It's a very versatile truck.

It's powerful.

It's gonna suit us well.

Flatlanders to mountain boys,

here we go, buddy. -That's right, buddy.

With new operators from the prairies...

Jace Summers...

From Brandon, Manitoba.

Uh, it's a little small town.

...and Evan Pardy.

Me and Jace go way back.

We've worked at prior towing companies together.

Doing it with my best friend.

Aww...

We've been down many, many roads together.

Tonight I'm operating

our new 50-tonne V100 Vulcan Wrecker.

We have named it "Hornet".

I'm eager to see what it's made of

and what it's gonna do.

Holy!

Bad day to do that.

I'm seeing a truck and a trailer

that's on its side.

The trailer is on top of the high-tensile cable,

and it's actually cut into the edge of the trailer.

Wow.

Also on scene,

regional manager Ty Kennedy.

The only crappy part is that it's gonna be hung up

on that front-- -Well, it's hung up

on that tension there. -I know.

Right now,

let's just grab this back end.

Let's just drag it over.

This section of highway,

it's notoriously bad for big accidents.

Traffic is blocked in both directions.

We're just going to drag it off

because we gotta open westbound.

Evan...

You can operate,

just throw the PTO on.

...will man the controls of the Hornet tonight.

The back of the trailer

is into westbound traffic.

We immediately

have to drag that back into the eastbound lanes.

Lines are rigged

to the frame rail of the trailer.

Half-inch chain?

-Half-inch chain-- -Yeah.

The pressure's immense.

We have all the general motoring public

watching us.

We've got all the truckers that need to get through.

Line one, do two?

43,000 pounds of vegetables

are loaded in the trailer.

Oh, there we go, bud.

You just wanna get it off that fast lane, right?

Yeah.

I guess we'll all just stand back,

'cause I don't know how this cable's gonna react.

The cable barriers are designed

to absorb the energy of a vehicle

and bring the vehicle to a stop.

Throughout my policing career...

I've seen how they could help.

Now the life-saving steel cable

is a danger to the Reliable team.

If it snaps,

it's under probably

like, 10,000 pounds of pressure,

so it's gonna go "Whew!"

and, uh, take everybody's legs out.

We're pulling.

This can be a very dangerous situation.

Watch yourselves.

If it were to snap,

it could shoot back,

and cause injury or fatality.

-Stop! -Hey!

In the Fraser Valley...

Keep going!

Try and get across the wires!

...Reliable is wrestling

with a loaded semi...

Hey!

...snagged

on the safety barrier that caught it.

He's just pulling it right through the frame.

Stop!

Yeah, hold on!

We can't just keep dragging it.

We're gonna wreck the cables, rip the trailer open.

To extract it off the cable...

Okay, I'm gonna back my lines off.

...they'll need more firepower.

It's safest if we just call in another truck.

Heading to the scene,

another new Reliable 50-tonne

dubbed "Heavy Metal."

This should be interesting.

Its lead operator...

They need a little more muscle.

...Andy Cullum.

I got a new Vulcan V100 Tri-drive.

35,000-pound winch

with 200 feet of 5/8ths cable on it.

Great addition to the fleet,

like a Swiss Army Knife of trucks.

As I pull up,

I'm seeing the truck and the trailer

laying on its side...

What's in it?

43,000 pounds, and it's all sitting on the bottom wall.

...right on top of all these cables.

High tension cables, be careful.

I don't know what the damage is

to these cables under here.

-Don't cut them. -We're apparently-- Yeah.

It can take weeks, if not months,

to get new cables.

It's like a three- to four-month backlog

to get new ones.

That means

maybe a vehicle's going to break through,

and somebody's going to get hurt.

We're gonna try and lift

as opposed to drag. -Yeah.

So let's pick the back and pull it over.

Okay.

I'll get almost beside you, then.

Yeah.

Andy wants to actually pick

the whole truck and trailer off the cable...

and then we'll slide it backwards.

One high, one low.

Okay, so yeah, that's gonna go high.

Heavy Metal lifts its end of the trailer

off the cable...

The more we can get it off that line 100%,

the better off we are.

Okay, back away from the line.

...and working in sync with Hornet,

they slide it off the cable barrier

and out of the westbound lanes.

We're off that line now.

We're off of it right now.

We're releasing westbound traffic.

Okay.

Now they can finally look at the load.

Full of vegetables.

There's garlic and peas,

and the whole load is on its side.

It's garlic.

You can definitely smell it.

We have another truck that's coming.

We'll unload it as it sits,

because if we drag it, we risk ripping it open,

and then having an even bigger mess to clean up.

You want his rear end right here?

Like, up here, though, so he can pull it ahead.

Well, cause he's gonna suck it that way, right?

He's gotta pull it ahead first.

Okay.

The goal here

is to separate the tractor from the trailer.

They'll use Hornet

to winch the sideways tractor forward.

Stop him there.

Stop.

Jace...

Give it a good whip.

...releases the king pin.

Now we gotta separate the tractor off the trailer.

Here we go.

Keep going.

Is it free yet?

Now it is.

Yeah, she's off.

Okay, grab two lines right here.

Put one to the front and one to the back.

Flop it over.

The team rigs two lines from Heavy Metal

to roll the tractor.

Okay.

Watch your faces.

Coming over!

Here it goes.

We'll call the boys in, and they'll unload it...

get this load shifted over to a good trailer.

Six hours northeast...

Okay, stop.

...on the TransCanada Highway...

It wants to roll as I'm bringing it up.

...Jamie's crew is struggling to drag a semi

up the bank.

The trucks are pulling too hard

for such a light load.

They were told

the trailer is only carrying 5,000 pounds of cargo.

So it's wanting to roll this way, eh?

Yeah, it wants to come already,

so I'm gonna put a strap around it, too...

Yeah.

...and then we're gonna rig it for a rollover.

But what should be a simple recovery job...

It wants to roll.

...is becoming more complicated...

We have a tear in the trailer.

...by the minute.

-There's a tear in it? -Yeah.

Oh no.

Where?

No, no.

They've moved it enough...

-See? -Mm-hmm.

...to reveal a big problem.

Oh, my God,

the trailer's got a hole in it now.

The tree punctured it.

Oh, it's pretty smashed up.

Oh, my God, that changes everything.

The trailer's damaged.

We're gonna have to re-rig it...

I'm gonna try not to lift on that roof too much.

...so that we don't damage it even more.

I don't think we can get on the top.

Now I gotta think about what I'm gonna do here.

And I'm starting to believe now

that the load

is way more than what's been advertised,

way more than we've been told.

Well, another thing I can do

is power buckle it, like, on the suspension.

Yeah, on the top of the suspension,

and get the top of the trailer coming

like you're pulling on. -Yeah, I can't...

I thought that wall would come up,

but it's not doing anything, just ripping.

So we're going to try to power buckle the rear ends,

get it to flip over that way.

Right around the wheel to me.

Now pull it.

So that gives it a downward pull.

That's what we want.

Lines from HR100

to the trailer's frame and bogies,

and lines from HR130 to the drives and tractor

will initiate the roll.

There should be one, two, three, four snatch blocks.

right?

So now, tighten this one up

and just snug it up.

I'm gonna get on this side, okay?

With his two heavies

rigged for the power buckle...

We're gonna pull on the bogies.

Okay, let's go.

...Jamie tries again.

We've got big, big machinery here

to pull this stuff up.

You can feel the force in there.

This cannot be the weight

that was given to us on this trailer.

Something seems terribly wrong here.

The wreck isn't budging.

That whole trailer's just imploding.

Hang on.

We're going to go down and have a look

and see what's inside.

This ain't coming out too easily now.

No, no. I don't know.

Well, it's just destroyed.

There's no way that that is 5,000 pounds.

No way.

We're looking through the trailer,

and this thing's fully loaded, front to back.

Now Jamie has new math to contend with.

We're talking 42,000 pounds

plus the weight of the trailer.

That's a lot of weight.

Okay.

They pull again.

We're past the point of no return.

We have to just carry on with this.

Uh-oh.

Oh, my God.

Oh, ho, ho, this is bad.

Can you do any more?

Yeah, I can go more.

Yeah, just keep going, pull.

The wreckers are having a hard time.

They were struggling.

No luck?

Sliding my truck.

Holy.

Aww...

What a frickin' nightmare.

We're doing everything we can do

to pull this thing.

This truck of mine is winching its guts out.

Nothing we can do.

Just bring out what we can.

I know that this customer's a good customer.

I think it's a mistake.

So I think they've mistakenly told us

5,000 pounds in the box.

Winching is becoming harder and harder.

Wow.

There, done.

Just pull all the rear end right out of it.

Yeah, what else can we do?

The miscommunicated weight...

Unbelievable.

...is resulting in a worst-case scenario.

We're pulling so hard,

this trailer's starting to self-destruct.

Unreal.

I've never seen anything like it

in my life.

There, done.

On Highway 1...

Just pull all the rear end right out of it.

Unbelievable.

...bad intel on the weight of the load...

Unreal.

...has scuttled Jamie's recovery.

I made the decisions based on the information.

Information's wrong,

we had a bad outcome.

Destroyed trailer,

and we have cargo all over the place.

Hours ago,

the semi lost control

and rolled into the ditch.

All right.

Man, this is disappointing.

I think we gotta just take the tractor outta here,

and then shut it down.

I'm gonna put this down now, then.

Hopefully it'll sit there.

We're going to get the tractor off the road,

get it rolled over and out of there.

It's a total loss anyway.

Yeah, everything off.

After three hours of struggle...

I gotta unhook this.

We're just gonna flip the tractor over.

....HR100 is unhooked...

...and moved out of the way

so HR130 can muscle the tractor over.

Yeah.

They'll reuse the same rigging.

Both straps.

Okay.

Brakes are on?

I think so.

They're on.

Okay, I'll get outta your way.

Stand back, Martin.

Free of the trailer,

Rob starts pulling the tractor over.

Think that thing's ever had grease?

Pull it up.

Touchdown.

Yeah, take all the chains off.

I got some straps for the, uh, hood.

Now we drag 'er home, boys.

Man, oh, man.

It really sucks when things don't work out.

We had a plan,

we knew what we're going to do,

we had it figured out,

but we got thrown a curveball.

What can you do about that?

But they're not giving up.

We're gonna, uh,

take the tractor back tonight,

and, uh, tomorrow,

come and try to deal with the trailer at some point.

Then, phase three

will be actually picking up the cargo.

It's turning into a bigger job.

We'll go back, regroup,

and it is what it is.

500 kilometres southwest...

...a crew is unloading

43,000 pounds of vegetables.

This is a high-value load of garlic and peas,

so we want to make sure

that we save as much of it as we can.

Earlier today,

the semi lost control,

and landed on top of the cable barrier.

With the unload complete...

You're just moving it back, yeah?

...and the transfer trailer

out of the way...

Pull.

The plan here is to roll the trailer over.

...two lines from Heavy Metal...

Right to there.

...are rigged to the trailer's top corners

for the rollover.

Ready?

Are you ready?

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

Flip 'er over, buddy.

Oh.

Andy's trying to pick up this trailer right now...

but it's just sliding all over the place.

Come on.

In the Fraser Valley...

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

Flip 'er over, buddy.

...Andy,

and his brand-new 50-tonne, "Heavy Metal..."

Whoa.

...wrestle with the last piece of a wreck

blocking the Trans-Canada Highway.

Come on.

Come on.

There it is.

Ho ho!

Hey, buddy!

Nothing to it.

I'm very happy with the crew and the team today.

One thing I've learned over the last three years

is that with the group of people

and the size of our company now,

I am sure that our team can handle

anything that comes our way.

Hey, man, good job!

Good job.

Successful day at Reliable.

I think, I think I got a few more ahead.

It's definitely a lot of relief

getting over the first big recovery,

working with a new team.

Let's get these back to the yard.

Well, that was quite a job, eh?

We did pretty well together.

Team Reliable clears out,

and traffic is ready to roll.

But just ten kilometres east

down the road...

...another truck has gone off Highway 1.

Heck yeah!

Heading to the crash

in a 50-tonne rotator...

We got a customer with his super Bs in the ditch.

...Aggressive Towing's

Chris Mervyn.

I believe there was another car accident

right in front of him,

and he just veered off the road.

Ooh, hoo, hoo... She's in there.

Wow.

Rolling to the scene in Truck 90...

This is Merv's old truck.

...operator Jaydan Dick.

Ah, I love this sort of thing.

Every day is different.

You never know what you're going to do.

Been with Aggressive

about two and a half years now.

Really enjoying it.

This season...

Wow, that's way out there.

...Jaydan is stepping up

to a 50-tonne heavy.

Merv kind of suggested that I move up into it.

He figured I was ready to do a little more on...

for recoveries, on my own, some bigger stuff.

This is a loaded super,

in the Brussels sprouts, that's for sure.

This B-train's fully loaded

with wheat and grain.

It's definitely a heavy pull.

That's a challenge.

Helping with the massive wreck tonight...

A mess,

it looks like a mess.

...is Jordon Cumiford.

At least we're not in a swamp.

It's dry, but it's soft.

It's definitely

buried itself in there pretty far.

Being that it weighs well over 100,000 pounds

fully loaded,

it's gonna move some earth around,

that's for sure.

So what we'll do,

we'll hook one truck to the nose of ya,

one truck to the middle of ya,

and just start trying to train it out.

They're generally not meant

to be pulled out this heavy.

That's quite a bit of weight to be pulling out of that ditch.

I think we take the nose and turn it...

Yeah.

...and we aim up.

We don't want to go further down.

It gets real steep down there.

Getting 'er moving will be the big part.

But Merv is wary of another problem.

Working with a live lane,

we gotta keep our head on a swivel here.

One brief second

of stepping somewhere you shouldn't

or not paying attention,

that could pretty much

potentially end your career right there.

Slow it down.

In the Fraser Valley...

Slow it down!

...speeding traffic on Highway 1...

...threatens the safety of Team Aggressive.

Ah, we just have to wait for flagging

to get our lane closure in so we're safe.

We're not allowed to start any work

until that closure's in, so...

With traffic control in place...

They pretty much got 'er beat now.

...Merv can turn his attention to the B-train.

I feel it's a lot simpler

if we just leave it all as one piece,

and it is free rolling.

I'll grab the trailers,

we'll put you on the nose.

I'm going to put Jaydan in his tri-drive

on the front of the truck...

and then my rotator behind him.

Okay, let's rig the pup.

We'll grab around the fifth wheel.

Lines from the rotator

will take on the heavy trailers,

while lines from the 50-tonne

will pull the tractor on a sharp angle

to avoid the steepening slope.

He actually went in

on one of the lesser ditches.

It's not as sharp

as if we were to go down another 80 feet.

Lines from Truck 90...

are rigged to the tractor's tow pins.

So what we're looking for

is for it to turn right away

and start coming up and out of the ditch.

Okay, let's start.

Snug 'em up, and let's see what we get.

Pull.

Both cables.

Make sure you keep tension on both, right?

Jaydan must keep his eyes...

There ya go.

...on the ends of his winch lines.

You want to share the load,

'cause we're pulling 90 degrees

on them things right now.

We overload one,

we're bound to rip it out.

Front tow pins are designed for pulling trucks forward.

Pulling hard like we are on almost 90 degrees is...

definitely can put a lot of strain on them.

Keep going.

As the wreck turns toward the road...

Definitely seeing it now.

That is quite a bit of weight,

and it's buried in that dirt.

...the tractor

plows through piles of soft ground.

Pull, pull.

-Oh, pull, sorry. -There you go.

Already moving 9-0.

This is where it's gonna get hard.

I don't wanna rip the hooks out of it.

We are dealing with the incline of the hill,

and quite a tremendous amount of weight.

The massive unit is fully loaded...

Ah, that's good.

It wants to move.

...with 100,000 pounds of wheat.

Okay, hold the brakes.

But now...

Let it down.

...the 90-foot B-train

must be coaxed into the granny lane.

The front of the tractor has to come out

on, like, a 10, 20-degree angle.

So just turn ever so slightly to the right.

We're only gonna go five, 10 feet.

Slow and steady wins the race.

Okay, jump in there, Ben.

A swamper climbs into the tractor to steer...

Boom up, Jayd!

...and the team can shift their focus...

We don't want to break them walls on the other side.

...to the trailers tilting towards the ditch.

The biggest thing I'm looking at right now

as we're pulling on this thing...

is making sure this load isn't gonna shift

to the point where those walls are gonna fail.

A lot of torque on the axle.

As pressure builds on the back wall...

It's not liking life.

...a crack is opening up.

With it leaning,

this wall could blow out,

and then we end up losing this guy's load of wheat,

and all his money is now laying in the ditch.

But then...

That's a big berm of dirt there, boys.

...Merv notices an even bigger problem.

The passenger stiff leg for the trailer

is actually burrowing underneath the roadway.

Starting to catch dirt on that landing leg.

If we don't address this problem,

we're definitely going to be doing damage to the road

and to the customer's trailer.

We gotta dig out that other leg,

or we're gonna rip it off.

On Highway 1...

...in the Fraser Valley...

Brakes.

...a massive B-train tilting into the ditch...

That's a ball of earth.

...has Team Aggressive...

We gotta dig out that other leg,

or we're gonna rip it off.

...digging deep.

It's into the pavement.

It's literally that much

until it's up and over.

We'll put one there, and I'll pull this way.

It'll lift the tension off that leg, hopefully...

Yeah, yeah.

...and then Jaydan can get it up on the asphalt.

Lines from the rotator are rerigged...

to lift on the passenger side.

Chains to the frame rails on the trailer,

run 'em underneath.

It's free-spooled.

I gotta run a strap over top of the trailer.

We're just looking to support it,

give it a little bit more lift on its downward side.

He's hooked on.

I'm a little nervous about that wall

actually letting go on that side,

so this will also help with that.

It'll hold it, right?

Happy?

With additional support from the strap...

Fingers crossed.

...they pull again.

Even if it's just skimming it, it's okay.

Clear?

Oh, yeah.

She's rolling.

That wall don't look very happy.

I got a little bit more to go here.

There's still a chance I can blow the wall out.

Keep going.

Having Merv's rotator here,

he's got four winches on his main boom,

so we've got a couple different spots

we can pull off of.

We're looking pretty good now.

Our new rigging setup

saved the landing gear...

and the road.

Pretty much back up on the road, so...

We could probably unhook you,

and we'll just put it in gear

and drive it forward next.

This is another one

that went textbook perfect.

Yay!

The truck's outta the ditch.

It's definitely a pretty good feeling,

feeling accomplished.

Oh, Jaydan's good, eh?

We've moved him into our 50-tonne here,

and he seems to be enjoying it and doing a good job.

...the B-train gets back on its way...

I think we got a pretty good crew coming into this season.

Hopefully we get a couple of good storms,

and stay busy throughout the winter.

This is where we say "Whee-hoo!"

...and Team Aggressive...

...clear off the highway.

The next morning...

...back in the foothills of the Rockies...

We're gonna go

and head out to the accident site again.

You know, we had a bad night last night.

This is a job you don't get every day.

Last night...

...wrong information

from the trucking company...

...caused a significant setback for Jamie.

Unbelievable!

Today's job is really

just to get it ready for the unload.

Now they have to pick up the pieces.

The main goal here

is to get the bogies out of there,

clear a path to the underside of the trailer.

I'm going to flip this over.

It's in every recovery guy's DNA

to want to recover things

without doing any further damage to them.

We take pride in recovering something.

But this is a salvage job.

We need to actually cut it so that we can get in

and get the cargo.

See, where it's hanging is right here.

Everything has forces...

...and everything is moving a different way,

and wants to go a different way.

Cut that.

I'll hold it.

I feel like I'm in the belly of the beast.

If you make the wrong decision,

you make the wrong cut...

...somebody could get hurt.

Jamie...

is determined to get it done.

There's a lot of work here.

This is a big, big job,

but you just don't give up.

Next time on Highway Thru Hell...

Unreal.

...in the belly of the beast...

Getting really up close and personal.

...Jamie...

Watch out!

...powers through.

Somebody went for a ride.

Aggressive...

I'm so sorry, Bertha!

...sends big iron...

That is a lot more truck than I thought.

...into the backcountry.

Got 'er?

...and Quiring...

It's a bad spot there.

...feels the squeeze.

It's getting real tight.