Trucking Hell

Return of the documentary following workers in the heavy recovery business. In Corby a 16-metre lorry loaded with waste flips over near a busy roundabout.

In this week's episode, company boss Adam Crouch detours from his morning office commute to attend the scene of a big incident. He leads the team as they try to rescue a rolled-over mixer truck full of tonnes of wet cement. Joining him in this biggest of jobs is patriarch of the family Dave Crouch, Adam's dad and a crane-driving expert. At Lantern, Merrie gets back on the road after a week's holiday in Italy only to discover her hydraulic levers have gremlins in the system — making it difficult to fix a broken-down truck's dodgy turbo. And in Leicestershire, things get wet and wild for Abang as he has to fish a Ford Focus out of a river.

In this week's episode, Crouch incident manger Steve and his team have been called out to a lorry that has caught fire on the extremely busy A1. By the time Steve arrives, the fire has been put out and Callum has pulled the tractor unit onto a low loader. But there's still the mammoth task of lifting what's left of the trailer onto another low loader. Steve and his team move a crane into position, but Dave notices that ash on the trailer is still burning — which could be extremely dangerous if the wind picks up, causing it to re-ignite. They decide to tip the trailer's remaining contents onto the road, making it much safer. Once this is done, they can concentrate on the lift, but the trailer is so badly damaged by fire that it could break up while in the air. So the team must be ultracautious as they attempt this recovery. Lantern boys Daniel and Steve have been called to rescue a trailer that's suffered a serious blow from the branch of an overhanging tree. The truck has managed to pull into its destination, but the trailer is so mashed up that it needs to be flattened, cut apart and flat packed for its ride home. Fortunately, there's an experienced forklift driver on hand who helps them flatten the trailer, but to cut it up takes more effort — and banter — than expected. With the help of a winch, a few grinder blades and much mutual ribbing, they get on with the job in hand. Meanwhile, in Market Harborough, Joe has been called out to recover a seriously damaged car that has been in a crash on a busy road. The police are already on scene when he arrives and are controlling the traffic. Joe gets out and makes a quick assessment of the car and the best way to recover it. Because it's so badly damaged, he decides to use the HIAB crane on his truck to lift it. But to do this, he will need the police to close the road, adding extra pressure as traffic quickly builds.

Lantern recovery op Stuart is called to assist in the rescue of a rollover, and finds an articulated lorry carrying at least 1,500 boxes of A4 paper has tipped over on a roundabout.

A crew trying to take care of a burned-out trailer struggles due to its missing wheels, and a broken down bus blocks a bus stop, with pedestrians complicating recovery efforts.

Three veteran recovery experts struggle with a terribly trashed truck; a rescue effort gets off to a bad start when the driver realises he's facing the wrong way.

A 15-tonne water tanker has been swallowed by a sinkhole in Wokingham town centre. Lantern lass Merrie rushes to the scene, where her concern is what might lurk within.

On the North York Moors, a 50 ton construction machine and the 20 ton trailer carrying it have crashed off a narrow country lane, collided with a bridge and landed in a stream.

On a remote track in the Yorkshire Dales, Kev and his fellow Alpha recovery ops try to salvage a 50-ton construction machine stranded at the bottom of a steep muddy embankment.

On the busy A1, halfway between Newcastle and Durham, an artic has veered into a 6-foot Armco roadside barrier, propelling it down a 20-metre embankment.

A 40-ton lorry careers off the M1 and plunges down an embankment, becoming embedded in a ditch. Steve needs to work out how to free the truck.

On the M11, a fully loaded truck pulling an extra trailer has been left marooned after a rear axle collapsed while at full speed. Alpha Recovery deal with a motorhome gutted by fire.

In Northumberland, a 32-tonne tipper gets lost in the dark and ends up stuck in a boggy field, while in Leicester recovery op Ziggy gets the keys to a brand-new set of wheels.

In the north of England, Kevin is called to a particularly challenging recovery: a 75-tonne crane that has become stranded in the remote countryside, in the middle of the night.

Vehicles in need of recovery include a Land Rover Discovery dumped in a canal, an artic that has lost traction on a steep gradient, and a truck that's nosedived into a back garden.

Just outside Newcastle, Kev is sent to rescue a wheelie bin delivery truck that has got stuck. With torrential rain forecast, this job is turning into a recovery nightmare.