Ice Road Rescue

These roads are some of the most dangerous in Europe.

When winter strikes, transport routes traveled by 50 ton trucks

turn into bobsleigh tracks.

This is catastrophe.

And when the major commercial highways aren’t highways at all

but winding mountain roads...

Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! Whoa! ...it’s a recipe for disaster.

But throughout Norway, there’s a brigade of rescue workers.

It takes a special breed of men to keep the roads open.

- (snap) - (man shouting)

This is my office.

In this episode,

tempers flare.

You’re stopping the whole society!

Kristoffer slips on black ice.

If we do something wrong, then we have a big problem.

Driver! Get in the car.

And a gamble Thord may live to regret.

Shit! (bleep) shit.

And now I am very angry. (bleep).

In the Southern Mountains, Norway,

winter has arrived in all its fury.

The rugged Highway Seven mountain road

has been closed for almost 24 hours due to heavy snowfall.

Even though this is the main artery

between the east and the west of the country,

road closure is common in the winter.

When the road eventually reopens, normal traffic starts to flow

but in these conditions, accidents are common.

A 40-ton truck somehow lost control and skidded off the road.

Now the road is blocked again

and is creating a dangerous traffic jam on this mountain pass that the locals call

Death Hill.

The Estonian driver is shaken up by the events.

I was driving very carefully.

Not driving fast... slowly.

Each year there are over 50 truck accidents on Death Hill.

Over a third of haulage drivers in Norway are foreign.

Sometimes they don’t travel with the right equipment needed

in the harsh Norwegian winter.

Now the local drivers are tired of it

and taking out their anger on the Estonian driver.

It should be forbidden to go in this track without proper tires.

Stupid.

You should have the equipment to go like, places like this.

A lot of people are stuck here.

I was trying.

But you can’t just try to drive. You have to be equipped and you’re not.

Can’t you see what you’re doing to everybody?

What? What’s up?

What’s up? We’re standing here waiting. My God.

The Estonian driver speaks little English or Norwegian

and can’t defend himself.

Well, I not want that this happens.

- No, but you have-- - I understand.

No, but you have to be properly equipped.

You’re stopping the whole society!

You can’t do that.

I’m so angry.

I’m so angry with people like you. So angry.

You’re so dangerous.

With a line of cars building up,

the drivers can only wonder how long the road will remain closed

and how long they’ll have to wait in the freezing temperatures.

But rescue worker, Bjorn, is on his way to Death Hill.

It’s up to him alone to reopen Highway Seven.

I can’t believe the road is closed again.

Now I have to go up and reopen the road before someone freezing to death.

Well, when I’m doing all this rescue things with trucks, I’m always alone.

That’s why they call me the lonely wolf.

As the traffic jam gets longer,

the locals get more frustrated with the Estonian driver.

I am really afraid

when I seeing these big trailers because they’re not equipped.

They don’t have the right tires.

I’m always afraid of an accident.

Further south, on the other side of the mountains

there is another rescue business.

Boss, Thord, is busier than ever.

(bleep). (bleep). Hey!

Finished?

I don’t know what’s happening. I am the boss in the company.

He is Polish. I have to help him.

With a six million Euro business to his name, he has two trucks

and five rescue employees working shifts around the clock.

Hold the line.

Hello?

It’s a distress call from a driver who needs help

in the mountains.

Thord doesn’t know what to expect when he arrives at the accident scene

so he has to use his judgment to pick the right rescue truck for the job.

I don’t know exactly what the problem is,

so we need a big car.

You never know before we are there, you know.

I hope this will be a big job for us.

This time, Thord decides to go for his biggest and strongest truck.

A decision he may regret later.

A 20-ton truck loaded with insulation for a cabin has slid off the narrow road.

Its wheels are now stuck deep in the snow and mud.

Thord knows this is going to be a challenging rescue.

It is (bleep) wet here.

It’s a lot of mud all around.

Now we are thinking little bit what to do

because it’s not so easy.

A quick rescue would be to pull this truck up sideways

but this would damage the 50,000 Euro truck beyond repair.

This is not so very easy.

Thord’s plan is to pull the truck out of the ditch

using his winch.

But with no room for the large tow truck,

Thord and Olav have to come up with another idea to pull the truck forwards.

Now I'm very angry. (bleep).

We don't get past this truck because it's no space enough to go.

Now I should have my small truck with because then I can pass this

only in the front and...

fifteen minutes, OK.

I should take two trucks with me

but we don’t have two trucks with so we have to test the, the options we have

to take this out.

We have to try something else.

This was not so good, but we don’t can give up.

The truck is sinking deeper into the mud

and Thord needs another solution fast.

He spots something he thinks he can use.

Now we are going to use this machine

to try to help little bit more in the front.

So now we try if he can help us little bit and then we try to take it forward.

We take one wire from my truck

up to the excavator and down to the truck again

to pull it forwards.

But before Thord is able to go ahead with his plan

he’s faced with another problem.

Shit!

The wire on the tow truck is stuck.

If they can’t use the wire,

they stand no chance of getting the truck back on the road.

When I don’t can get the wire out of the truck then I get very angry.

It’s not good.

We have some problem with the wiring.

We don’t can release it.

We should take the other truck today, but...

we thinking it was... more bad roads.

I think a fuse is gone, Olav.

I think all the water has destroyed it.

So we have to drive it manual out. Then I get stressed.

This happen when you want to do the work quick and it’s raining like hell

and the weather is very bad and it’s cold and you are wet and everything is shit.

We have to take it manual out.

The electrical wire for the release mechanism is broken.

Its taken another half hour to pull out the wire manually.

It’s nice weather outside now so, then always something go wrong.

But despite the bad weather, Thord cannot give up.

On treacherous Death Hill, Bjorn has arrived just in time.

Night time temperatures can drop to below -20 degrees

and with visibility reduced, rescue attempts are even more dangerous.

Well, I was come up and I see all the traffic standing.

I see the trailer has totally closed the road

and my first priority is to get the traffic moving

‘cause they have been waiting very, very long.

I’ve been here for more than two hours.

We are freezing to death here!

I feel the pressure that this is only one thing to do is open the road.

Bjorn needs to hurry but he has to be very careful.

One wrong move could be fatal.

Bjorn attaches the winch to a towing hook on the frame of the trailer.

It’s the strongest part of the trailer and should hold.

Since the trailer is stuck uphill, he has to winch it carefully.

I hope it’s not gonna be a... problem.

If he uses too much force,

the trailer could slide towards him and the line of waiting cars,

crushing everything in its path.

At the same time, he has to keep the area clear.

If the 20 ton winch slips it could kill someone instantly.

I will try to winch it...

away from the road so we can...

get some traffic on.

The clock’s ticking for Bjorn.

With temperatures dropping rapidly,

the drivers stuck in their vehicles are getting colder by the minute.

Bjorn needs to move the truck out of the way without any further incident.

BJORN (in Norwegian): No way!

In the Southern Mountains,

Thord is struggling to haul a 20-ton truck back on the road.

He has finally been able to pull out the stuck cable.

Nice weather to work in, huh?

Total wet.

With the excavator in position, they’re ready to try Thord’s rescue plan.

The excavator is placed in front with a pulley

using the tow truck’s winch to pull the toppled truck forward.

If this doesn’t work, I’m (bleep).

With everything in place,

Thord can only pray his jerry rigged rescue plan will work.

Thord’s pulling a 20-ton truck

with an excavator that only weighs seven tons.

With the wire set up this way

it’s creating an enormous pull on the digger and everyone’s anxious.

Will it be able to withstand the traction or will the wire snap under the strain?

The attempt with the jerry rig is a failure.

The problem is, this excavator too small

so it don’t can stay on the road.