that's not good this time on heavy rescue
401 no that's a bummer cracked trailers if he doesn't prepare himself he could force
his Split Decision watch out we don't have much wiggle room the Rosses get squeezed wow
it's pretty easy to get lost in here and Mitch heads off-road if I get stuck we're here all
night and into the drink No Mitch you got water it's perfectly fine here yeah mid-afternoon traffic on the
highways of Toronto is moving well but at the compass traffic center
operators k
eep careful watch sideways because when there's more room for traffic to
move there's more room for things to go wrong 401 Eastbound Express East of Vic Park really [ __ ] Tango zero zero seven
I'm just uh normal one right now and just after 3 P.M OPP Sergeant Carrie
Schmidt heads west of the city to an urgent call in Oakville there's two vehicles
on the right shoulder even on team um truck on fire Highway 403 uh near uh Dundas we gotta get to the scene uh smoking pretty good this is a prett
y
significant fire we're dealing with so there's going to be a massive delays congestion
and possibly road closures in that area right now all right so traffic's backing up here
now so this is the start of a Slowdown there they are lights a fire crew is dousing the last of the
Flames that erupted on the flatbed trailer that's quite the mess hey how you doing
it brings us eased heated up caught fire and then the fire got converted up
to the cargo that was on the flatbed [Music] so this is H
ighway 403 eastbound just before
Dundas Street we have a transport truck that caught fire Terry docked him into the
scene to keep the public informed it actually melted The Aluminum deck of the
trailer fires on scene doing uh their work the fire department obviously has put the fire out
but we're down below zero freezing temperatures and obviously the risk of ice and freezing uh of
that water could result in Slippery conditions firefighters take care of the ice but the
tougher problem is t
he flatbed itself the fire actually melted the Integrity of the trailer
and continued up into the cargo on the trailer and now we're waiting for first to come
in and remove the trailer and the cargo removing it won't be a simple hook and
toe they can't even pull it because the structural Integrity is gone yeah so as soon as
they pull it it's just going to collapse by itself on a flatbed we want to get this trailer
cleared out of here as quickly as we can traffic is backing up this is a majo
r
connector here on the West End of the GTA and anytime we lose a lane here it has massive
implications this trailer is not going anywhere [Music] [Music] looks like we've got some heavy toes showing
up here I see two heavy toes but I don't see a full trailer waiting for a float trainer
is going to take extra time [Applause] for us to be Towing it down the highway
puts it in huge risk because if it was to fail on the highway we could have an even
bigger mess than what we have right now sho
w the heavy Ops offer up an unconventional idea
I'm gonna hook up by the back and hook up at the front so the toes have a plan tow it off without
a float trailer by putting one truck in reverse fail hook one record to the back and
a second on the front slinging the trailer between them then they'll drive
it off the road one of them in reverse this is uh something that we don't see all the
time it will be faster than waiting but if the move puts too much strain on The Middle
they risk break
ing the trailer in half so the Salter truck should be in place
in less than five minutes the mtl's got the blockers across the Box as managers
of the scene the opp have decided it's a chance worth taking let's see if these
guys can pull it off okay hopefully the Integrity of this trailer holds we
have that deck that has been compromised you're going to lift right on the
axle yeah it looks like it they got the front end hooked up the back end is
just lifting up right now and uh they're gonn
a bring it right off the ground
even this initial lift could be too much you can see how it's flexing right
at the break point there in the trailer so far it's holding it shouldn't be almost ready to roll now they need
it to stay intact for the 300 foot trip to the exit you'll be in neutral going backwards and
just rear steering it is dicey because this is a big combination unit and considering one of
the tow operators is actually driving in reverse they need to work very carefully so that
we don't
have a failure while removing this down the road all right and we're rolling seeing this operation in play was
certainly Dynamic and fascinating they got it off the highway and
much better time than what we would have had to have had had
we waited for that float trailer great job guys a memorable recovery that was
very well done regarding that tractor trailer fire East 403 at Dundas thankfully The Remains
have been removed and all Lanes have reopened what's going on driver tractor
trailer accident up
ahead 90 miles north traffic heading into Barrie it's bottlenecking into a
serious slowdown on Highway 11. passengers got serious injuries and has been
transported to the Toronto area Trauma Center approaching a Truck moving extremely
slowly the southbound driver tried to stop veered off the road and
rammed into a stand of trees you want to go all the way back there first
classic Towing's Bill Barron has already seen that there's no way to pull it out with a
cargo ins
ide we got it we want to offload it we want to get a good look at the inside
of the trailer because we've already seen the underside has broken boards heavier
insulation for the second time this winter Phil will be working alongside Tyler wall
from Lucky's Towing any bit away if we take it out it increases our chances of being
able to pull this thing out in as one unit it's crucial that we get this roadway open again
especially before dark and for everybody's safety it's very important that
we clear this seat
floating the insulation has eaten up valuable time there's some badly damaged up front we may
tear it apart when we pull it up think that's it now we're gonna get our trucks
up over there and hook onto it Bill moves the flagship 75-ton
classic Rotator to hook the front and Tyler gets his record into
position he'll be on the back up here that's good everybody ready ready the plan is to have Phil hold on to the
snow to the trailer as I swing the ass end of the trailer ont
o the road come in
a little more if there's any movement from the front since the brakes at the front
it can cause the trailer to snap in half okay beautiful so far so good they've got the
tractor where they want it but now Tyler has to swing up the fragile trailer go ahead oh
I'll watch it you never know what it's going to do until you give it a bit of a pull
I'm all unhooked at the front here okay I'm gonna try to lift as well as pull the
trailer toward me in the hopes that when I lift i
t up it doesn't transfer weight to the
front and cause the trailer to snap in half well hang on is it looking good Phil there's a little twisting
carry on I think we're good player [Applause] I just needed to swing smoothly
the final few feet up to the road stand together so far there's still a chance that it could rip go ahead I'll just watch it yep on
Highway 11. the classic and lucky Cruise need to ease the cracked
trailer smoothly to the road but they haven't quite cleared the slope alt
hough
the front of the trailer is starting to turn up the back of the trailer is digging into the
bank a little bit the Top's more tough having so when I pulled the bottom it's like pulling the
legs out from underneath it it went really quick that way and I think it caught fill off guard
you put a line to it and you can pull it okay Phil needs to reposition the
rotator and add another line I'm just gonna do a straight pull this
way yep so give it a little pull so I'll just come nice and ea
sy we're just gonna be as gentle as we can and
move as slow as we can and get it up on the road okay just remember not too fast
you're 10 times faster than me bring it in a bit and the whole front end on the road all right you
can stop there I'll pull the rest of it over here she's on the road we are good we should
be able to throw it out of here one piece oh that's a bummer what a closer
inspection reveals that the trailer is even more compromised than they
thought the damage is pretty se
vere on the floor of the trailer it's cracked in
two places not just one there's no way with the way the trailer is that we're going
to be able to pull them as a single unit [Music] oh somebody's having a bad day for sure
200 miles Southwest just east of London don't do that every day oh wow wow traffic passing the Putnam truck inspection
station is slowing to catch an unusual sight [Music] fire inside the scale house it's definitely
kind of a unique situation it's not too often that you fi
nd yourself working
in the scale house doing a recovery today Austin Hutchinson Ross service's newest
operator is answering the call today I'm on my way out the Rotator Mike's gonna come out
kind of supervising lend a helping hand here it's already been a winter of challenging
recoveries for Austin but the biggest challenge has been leaving his own family's company well
originally I worked for spices of Woodstock it was a family-owned company my uncle my cousin
owned it last year they deci
ded that they were ready to retire so David Ross bought our
Rotator from us and they offered me a job it's been an adjustment but Austin's earned
his place today he'll be taking the lead wow putting on the land all as Austin and Senior
off Mike Ross arrived the fire crew has put out the flames I'm actually gonna pick
this truck up with the Rotator and set it onto one of our land offloads on there one
on the back the biggest thing to worry about on one of these things just making sure
that
you got a hold of something solid that's good we're just gonna pick it up nice
and gently okay going up just watch yourself thank you okay Brandon get ready get in your truck be good there in common all right she's coming around me and Austin work well together he
knows what's going on and does a good job well that's a first [Music]
today's job might have been simple but it's another sign that Austin made the
right move I never got a burnt one out of the scale before absolutely I feel like a
n
equal members I mean it it feels like home [Music] are the dolly legs on the ground right now back
up on Highway 11. we can wheel it up a little bit the combined crews are working to find some way
to move the compromise trailer off the scene and just put a little winch on it and pull the trailer
down once we pull the truck out from underneath the trailer there'll be no strength to hold it
up the floor will just let go and then we'll have a bigger mess on our hands there's no way the
trai
ler can move in one piece but it's not safe to let it just fall apart we're gonna get you to cut
it cut it right here I'm an arborist I got called to remove the tree that the truck ran into but
the crew is recruiting him for a whole different job we don't work with chainsaws every day he's
got all that skill so he's here we might as well use important to good news cut it right across
something different change as good as a break cutting the trailer in two will allow
them to safely remove bo
th pieces without risking the entire
unit falling apart on the road but the floor is only the first part of the job hey Wes we got a ladder up this way
to go out and cut the roof I'm used to climbing a tree with spurs on but we don't
really like ladders in the tree industry when he's cutting he's leaning on the
saw so at any point when something lets go if he doesn't prepare himself
he could lean forward lose balance watch out we're gonna get you to cut it on Highway 11.
almost through the
heavy recovery crew has drafted their tree expert for his sawing
skills at any point when something lets go if he doesn't prepare himself
he could lean forward lose balance He's a brave guy because even though he's
standing on the good side that's only aluminum when I cut the top the trailer
buckled the roof is ready to collapse I think it'll just fold over one way or another crew needs to be ready as long as he knows where the ladder is and he
can jump for it then the rest of us can get h
im [Applause] [Music] he just cut through the top roof evening
traffic is building on the bottleneck Highway and so is the pressure I gotta cut the final uh
PCD aluminum holding the trailer together [Music] we're hopeful and hey there's one
Crosser still holding it on the bottom can't spend any more time on cutting they'll rely on Force arrange the rest of
the trailer apart so they can clear this road I'm here we're good let's hook her up get her
out of here the crew can tow away both ends
of the trailer but that's not the only
reason to celebrate Church on the open teacher that was injured it's gonna be
okay in recovery so that's a good thing people account that doesn't that's just steal right there I think we did a really
good job it was a first for me to call in an arborist to come cut a trailer and
app so that was a new experience for me get it out of here open up the highway as a new day Dawns let's get her done Mitch Wright
is prepping for an unusual recovery directions
are a little off but it's not like there's
a regular you know address where we're going to a job 125 miles west of their yard and far up
the 401. we have a car that's been burnt it's in the middle of the woods so we're on the way up
right now to try to locate the vehicle and then see if we can't get this thing pulled out so we're
going up half mile we're gonna see an old railroad line over the past three years Mitch has cemented
his role as a rotator off on big recoveries we're used to doi
ng recoveries with you know 53 foot
transport trucks and and the big stuff this year he's started to take on a leadership role what's
your ETA to get it out like what's this thing out way yeah I was gonna say way inside of an hour
45 minutes max I'm starting to lose my patience dark does creep up pretty fast this time of year like always I went in with a little bit of
overconfidence and this job is pretty good at pumbling you pretty fast if you're not careful
so it kind of bit me in the ass
but today facing just an SUV he's feeling confident at first
glance of this this recovery kind of does look like it's going to be a walk in the park I guess
keep your eyes peeled for that old railroad line thinking this might be it right up in here that's
where we gotta go at the railway line yeah about a thousand feet up there's another Trail and
we got to go in that trail 1500 feet down past the mud bog we'll just take the Bobcat
right in I guess this is as far as the truck can go from h
ere on they'll have to rely on the
mini excavator alone all right let's do it I have one bar on my phone I'm a little concerned about
this job because we don't know exactly where it is or what we're in for all right Sun's already
going down yeah two hours left likely before it's going to be sundown and so getting this
thing out of here with enough time with the daylight and everything like that and getting
homes is a priority yeah just straight back let's do it let's go we have some
direct
ions they're a little bit sketchy but you know I think if we just pay enough
attention I think we'll find our way there [Music] get lost out here we know that we're in the
right general area but unfortunately you know in the woods it's if you can get lost it's you
know you don't know where you are at all times down the trail I'm not sure
I can estimate 1500 feet well I would say great about where we are
yeah but no burnt car don't walk ahead of you we're looking for a needle in the
haystac
k at this point and you know soon enough we're going to be looking in the dark it's a recipe for disaster at this point major block right now [Music] just 45 miles Southwest we'll go see what's
going on down there Mike Ross is back on the road and heading for a heavyweight recovery we're
headed down towards St Thomas to Highway 3 . it's been a serious accident down there
involving a uh a truck with a coil of Steel on it following close behind in the second Rotator
is operator Brad Prince rea
dy for a top fight coils are complex because they're some of the
heaviest loads that are going down the road some of these coils can get up to 80
000 pounds that's a lot of weight 80 000 pounds it's almost what this truck weighs big mess here lots of debris a smaller vehicle collided with a truck sending
it off the road and into the ditch unfortunately with this Collision it is a fatality so there's
at least one person that's not coming home tonight that coil is a handful down there Mike's F
ather
David has already arrived and sized up the job ahead the uh coil Steel game dislodged broke
the chains and Hardware it went through the side of the Trailer part of it's laying on
the ground in the mud probably gonna have to drill it the Cap's way underneath the tank
okay as younger operators join the crew for this job David is happy he can rely on tested
experience we'll see what it does if I have to I'll put the drag winch on tuck it over away a
little bit he's got a lot of years in
doing it he has an appreciation for weight that is probably
one of the biggest things weight and balance that's what you got to have for this trip we gotta
pull the truck and trailer out first to get access to the coil it's kind of leaning up against the
coil in the ditch hopefully with any luck this coil stays where it is the coil weighing in at
an estimated 55 000 pounds could shift during the pull causing damage to the trailer the
trailer has some War rooms but surprisingly it's in rela
tively good shape for going through
a collision like this can you pull up the chain sideways away from the coil but in this
ditch there's only so far they can pull we got the coil on the other side that's
pushing up against the trailer and we got this Culvert that's really only a foot off
the other side we don't have much wiggle room to try and maneuver this trailer to get it
out of the ditch that's probably about a 125 000 trailer so you don't want to do any
more damage to the trailer for
the customer Mike will use a low line to divert the
trailer sideways as much as possible while two lines from the second
Rotator steer the truck to the road give her a tug quench it from
there and see what it does generally pulling this thing out really got
to be careful how we do this trailer to clear the coil without getting caught and dragging
against it porch the coil on the other side give her a tug on highway three south of London
gently pulling this thing out really got to be caref
ul how we do this the Ross crew is working to
ease out the trailer without jamming it on the 55 000 pound steel coil exactly
porch the coil on the other side When Brad started pulling it out the back of the
trailer got into that coil and it was just kind of going to cause damage to the trailer pushing
on that coil real hard the coil is starting to drag along the side of the trailer paints on the
hook too now that they've cleared the culvert [Music] really time for round two he got it up to
your truck we're getting the thing out of here now yeah yeah it's coming out just fine we're fine come over to the ditch real nice actually but the truck was just the warm-up the
real challenge will be the coil itself can you confirm the weight of that thing for me I
really don't know if I use the gas we'll find out off a back road 45 miles Northeast there's no
Maps just trust your sense of direction with the sun starting to set Mitch's quick and simple
job is so far anything but we can't lo
cate the SUV at this time we have next to no cell service
you know our directions are very vague Justice hope is fading away oh there it is they finally
found the wreck and the first signs are promising it looks like everything is still intact so
we should be able to just drag it out of here Sun's dropping we probably got 45
minutes before it's Pitch Black in here I've run that Bobcat you know pretty much
my whole life I think we can make it happen go all right get aggressive keep going but
from the first poll iced up already now
the job is slipping away hang up it's not even moving is it no it's not moving we're done
it's ice got about six inches of snow on top of basically a sheet of ice so it's it's like a
hockey rink under there take it off the bobcat all right okay so you'll try to push
it it's just not getting any traction just in case all right well bench has trouble Finding Traction
pushing things not working very well is it the SUV is finding too much with a burnt ou
t
car you have no wheels you have no tires you know everything's locked up everything's digging
into the ground and just creating more resistance book a chain around that front bumper
okay get it hooked and uh oh you're draws okay you're good I thought this was kind of going to be you
know poke the chains up and drag it out but I can't push this thing I can't pull this
thing we're out here alone we got no help try to get towards us a little bit before
we uh try and do a lift see how it lik
es it it's a lot of weight on highway three in
Talbotville the Ross crew is rigged up and ready to wrestle the steel coil from the ditch I call
it 55 000. hopefully that's an accurate number it's kind of rolling here now this thing's heavy lifting up to 55 000 pounds off the
side could topple Mike's rotator when you're lifting a coil of that size you want
to get it as close to the truck as possible before you start to lift and to place the coil onto
the new trailer Mike will have to swing i
t right over top of his truck everything has to be
perfect in order to lift a coil like that ready take it real slow they said 55. it is 55. pretty good
lift there's so many things that can go wrong when you're lifting something that heavy with your axles you want to done whenever you're swing it over the back of your
truck it always goes through your mind you know what if you just hope it doesn't fall when it's
over your truck that's all anywhere over there if anything goes wrong at
this p
oint it's game over foreign that's always nice when you set
her down on the the other side no problem looks good with younger operators
poised to move up the ranks at Ross the current lead-off still has a lot left to teach them
that went good everything went well here Mike has acquired quite a skill set for doing these
jobs over the years and I'm very proud of them straight back [Music] in the forest Mitch has finally been able to move
the SUV barely it's all uphill downhill it's icy to mov
e it 10 feet takes 10 minutes
so it's definitely a struggle and with the sun going down
we don't have time to waste that would be an issue we just got to
keep pushing in shoving it slamming it and pulling it and doing everything
we can to try to get it out of here and the path through the trees bring them more
this way he's getting tighter where am I at you go straight back from where you are the problem is
that we gotta navigate through this kind of bush part [Music] after fall in differe
nt directions
to weave it through the trees this is a mess [ __ ] hang on just stop they need to change the plan ten times more
room to go through it here but I don't want to put the Bobcat on that ice down by the mud
bog it's iced over we're not exactly sure how deep it is or how thick the ice is I don't know
if it's six inches deep is it four feet deep well I could potentially just
drag it straight in here but like you're gonna crack through the ice I can make
it in okay we got about 15
minutes a daylight if I go through here we're stuck here all
night that's it so he decides to make a test run over the bog before he tries it with a car
hooked up oh so you're gonna go really good or she's got water you've hit water seems like plan a plan B and plan C
Are all uh bad ones that's a problem you want to zigzag through the trees I think
poking and prodding it through the trees is it's gonna take longer with sunlight dwindling
Mitch needs to find a route out of the box if I go th
is way through the trees we're gonna be here all
night so I don't know I'm kind of stuck both ways decision time a part of me wants to just hold
it wide open and send it across this if I get stuck we're here all night potential of getting
stuck and being there all night long is there or we can go the long way through the trees
which it's a maze to get there and think it's going to be you know this easy go it's
frustrating we want this thing out of here okay I got an idea all right okay so w
e're
gonna bring it down through the trees past where the water is going to be like where
the water's showing from us yeah and then we're sucking it out that way through the other
end of the the pond still you don't want to go all the way around I think if we screw around
with going through here and through here and turning it and like it's a lot of thick trees
in there okay I hear you all right let's try it all right 10's left and then it should
be interesting we're gonna go halfway throu
gh the trees the longer way
and then shoot across the center of the bog and uh hopefully
it's going to be a home run this is scary I've only got about 10 feet before you have
to turn or you're gonna end up in the drink leaving through the trees is far from simple going this way you've got all kinds of
problems with turning the whole vehicle once we get about another 50
feet over that way we should be able to have a straight shot out to the road come on baby but that takes Mitch right back
over the thin ice come on and the muck below go go come on that's icy I'm not stopping there we go that's what I'm talking about I'm pumped up the last thing I wanted
to do is you know be sleeping in that truck and having to having a
camping night out in the woods right she's out we're out it wasn't pretty
but she's out perfect and today success comes with a lesson for it to be a car and you know in
your head be like oh this is going to be easy is not not the case I mean we've rolled
transp
ort trucks over that went you know easier than this car did that's
good but you know the job was to get the burnt SUV out of the woods and get
it on the truck and that's where it is all right we're going home [Music] see how heavy it is next time on heavy
rescue 401 stay in sync with this one big changes watch that cat strap on a
big jaw catcher climb catch it catch it we can puncture the tanks soft shoulder
maybe someone of a tango dance going on hard slide you gotta get out of there
and
the shifted load heavy enough that I could kill somebody meat shifting wins
I don't want to pull you off the trailer [Music] [Applause] [Music] foreign [Music]
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