Trucking Hell S07E05 - Episode 5

In Buckinghamshire, a lorry stuffed with mattresses hits a low bridge and limps to Little Chalfont's station car park where Lantern veteran recovery op Steve declares the curtain-sided trailer structurally unsound, in need of cutting down and flat packing. That can only happen with the mattresses removed - but a replacement lorry on which to put them won't arrive until the following day when incident manager Daniel takes over.

Once the mattresses are off, sparks fly as a disc saw cuts through heavy metal and a crane crushes, rather than lifts the damaged frame. But even neatly stacked, this trailer won't lie down. Its fifth wheel attachment is bent and without it straightened it's going nowhere.

On rural Derbyshire's A615, a Ford Fiesta has crashed into a field. Crouch rookie recovery op Paul soon discovers he can't extract it because between the wrecked car and the road lies an unexpected wall and Paul's tow truck doesn't have a crane. While rush hour traffic builds behind his Slidebed, Paul puts his faith in the battered Fiesta's structural integrity to winch it closer to the wall and wait for help to arrive in the form of a craned truck. When it does, the race is on to get the car out and both recovery trucks out of the way of the increasingly impatient morning commuters.

And on the A66 near Scotch Corner Alpha's Aidan needs to find an off-road four-wheel drive Trakker truck with a blown engine turbo. When he does, it's blocking a slip road in a dangerous spot but despite the risk of traffic speeding by just feet away, Aidan bravely goes under the casualty vehicle to remove its half shaft and finds an elusive air valve so he can take control of its brakes.