After trucks wreck on 401, camera crews in tow
For Herb’s, featured in Heavy Rescue: 401, dangerous situations are part of the job
When things go horribly wrong with big trucks on Ontario’s 400-highways, people die, things burn, traffic locks in angry grids and a mountain of wreckage is left behind.
And people like Andrew Vink go to work.
“A lot of times, when the weather turns bad, and people stop and get off the road, that’s often the time we’re going out.”
Vink is operations manager for Herb’s Towing, one of the biggest outfits along Highway 401 from Cornwall to the Quebec border and, at age 26, now a television character, if not an emerging star.
Vink and the crew from Herb’s — famous for its Highway 417 “travel plaza” near Vankleek Hill — are among those featured in Heavy Rescue: 401, a Discovery series that began its second season this week.
Using a deep-voiced narrator and world-ending play-by-play, the show follows a number of socalled heavy rescue firms dealing with the worst trucking wrecks along the 400-series freeways. It dramatizes the work of righting eighteen-wheelers, unloading churned cargo, stopping dangerous fuel leaks, re-flipping containers, unplugging dump trucks — day and night, in treacherous weather conditions.
It is, absolutely, specialized work. Herb’s, like others, has a customized crane called a rotator truck, which is capable of working in tight spaces and lifting as much as 80 tonnes — flipping everything from cement trucks to tankers — and costing as much as $1 million. Proper training on the massive machine can take four or five years.
“It’s educational for the commuters and the general public,” said Vink. “It can shed some light on what towing and recovery is all about and the kind of dangers we face on the road everyday.”
The biggest of which, he says, is the parade of cars and trucks passing at 100 km/h only feet from where rescuers are working, in snow or sleet or pitch dark. (Some parts of the 401 in central Toronto, for instance, carry in excess of 400,000 vehicles a day.)
Vink is the third generation at Herb’s, which was started by his grandfather, Herb Vink, a Dutch immigrant, in 1957. He died suddenly in 1989, and a series of family members, including Herb Jr. the current president, took over and expanded the company, taking advantage of growing traffic on the 417 and 401.
The towing division, based in Cornwall, now has 15 employees and about 20 vehicles, including two big rotators, capable of lifting just about anything on wheels.
Vink was first approached by the program producers more than a year ago. “I was actually reluctant at first.”
He said he called a couple of tow companies involved in similar shows in B.C. and in the U.S. and got mostly positive feedback. So Herb’s agreed. Last winter, he estimates a film crew joined them on about 14 jobs, only some of which will be featured in episodes airing this season. Vink said he had conditions: the tow crews would not do “re-takes,” would not intentionally dramatize their jobs and, when necessary, would tell camera crews to back off.
“The show understands, at the end of the day, we’re not in the business to entertain people, we’re in the business of recovery and towing.”
It also helped that Herb’s was able to vet any footage going to air. “It’s been a very good experience.”
In the first winter, Herb’s was called to remove a number of trailers that had jack-knifed or flipped along the 401, haul out a Jeep that fell through the ice on a creek off the Saint Lawrence, and unload pharmaceutical equipment that was in danger of freezing in an upside-down container. For Herb’s, just another day on the job.
“From our point of view, there is nothing dramatic,” said Vink, who said three cameramen tagged along for a full shoot.
“Sometimes things are more difficult. We keep cool, huddle up the team and look for solutions.”
One of the things the public doesn’t appreciate, explained Vink, is the speed at which cleanup crews need to work, because closure of even one lane on the 401 has far-reaching consequences for the motoring public and industry.
Producer Todd Serotiuk, from Vancouver-based Great Pacific Media, said the premiere of the series, on which about 300 people work, set an audience record in 2017 for a Discovery Canada program.
“We really try to promote strong safety messaging,” said Serotiuk, pointing to partnerships with the OPP (with on-air appearances) and the Ministry of Transportation.
“It’s a like a sugar-coated pill in a way. We hope the entertainment will allow people to swallow the safety message that’s in there. That’s a huge part of why we do this.”
He said the Herb’s team will be featured in six of 10 episodes this season.
It airs at 10 p.m. on Tuesdays, with repeats during the week. To contact Kelly Egan, please call 613-726-5896 or email kegan@postmedia.com Twitter.com/ kellyegancolumn