Without Warning Motorway Cops

120 received. We are en route now.

'Working as a motorway cop means being prepared...'

So is the Corsa that he's clipped post-collision with the horses?

'..for anything that comes your way.'

Keep them here till we've got drivers.

'Where keeping your cool...' I'm not going nowhere! Oi. Wind your neck in.

'..and dealing with the unexpected is all part of the job.'

The main thing is, you keep an open mind.

It's dangerous to be complacent. Anything can happen and quite often does.

'It's the evening rush hour on the M62 between Leeds and Bradford.

'But tonight the problem is just off the motorway.'

Tango-eight-zero, we'll attend that one, as well.

'In Birkenshaw, PCs Andy Bell and Wayne Baker

'are on their way to an accident involving a horse

'which has been hit by a car.'

The problems with an animal and livestock is we haven't got the means

of dealing with them and controlling them at the scene,

so it's almost inevitable that we're going to need a vet or some kind of assistance

to either put the thing to sleep or to sedate it

so we can make sure that it's not going to cause any other problems for other road-users.

Normally when we attend animal incidents,

it's sheep, dogs, cats, much smaller animals,

so this was quite out of the ordinary for us.

I don't know about the lighting in the area. Obviously, it's dark now,

so if it is in a dark area, the horse isn't going to be illuminated in any way,

so it's going to become more of a hazard if it is in the road.

'The accident is on an important link route

'between the nearby motorway and a major trunk road connecting Bradford and Wakefield.

'And as Andy and Wayne approach the scene, traffic is already at a standstill.'

We're here now. There's a Fiat Punto here with quite substantial damage to the windscreen.

They've closed the road. I can see an officer in front of the other traffic car

that may be with the horse.

But we're going to go and just ascertain what's exactly taken place.

I'm just wondering whether to shut it at the roundabout and get them to go round

or bring them past. It's just what they're going to see.

We haven't got any screens. No, we'll leave it shut. That's the best thing.

I don't know the full ins and out of how the accident's happened at the moment,

but the Fiat Punto has obviously been in collision with the horse.

At the moment, the horse is in quite a bad way.

It's got a broken leg that's been severed

and the bone's showing, there's quite a lot of blood.

So the horse is in quite a distressed state. The owners are with it

and they're trying to calm it down and keep it calm while we get a vet here.

So the vet's on the way. How long they're going to be we're just waiting to find out.

So I'll go and try and find out what's happened

in terms of the accident and how it's happened.

Any type of loose livestock or wildlife

can quite easily lead to a fatal collision

or fatalities, multiple.

Hi, buddy. Hi. You all right? Yeah, not bad.

Are you driver? I am, yes. Hiya.

On that occasion, the driver of the vehicle was extremely lucky.

On another day,

you could be talking about something far, far more serious.

'Wayne must work out if the driver was at fault.'

What's happened, then?

Erm, I was just coming up here. Yeah.

Can you see that black van there? I can.

About... Well, I've been told about four horses run out

and I just hit one of them.

So they've run out from... From... Sorry, just that road there.

Right. And they've just all run out.

Right. So it's run out in front of you? Yeah.

How fast were you going at the time? Erm...

35, maybe 40. OK, then, no problem.

Just sit tight, I'll be back with you in a sec. How's it looking down there?

Er, the horse is in a bit of a bad way at the moment. I've seen its leg.

Yeah. So the horse is in a bad way, there's quite a lot of blood.

Whether the horse will make it or not, I don't know, but we'll wait for the vet to get here

and let them have a look at it.

'A lorry driver is the main witness to the crash.'

Did you see the accident happen?

I gave the details to him. Yeah.

So were you behind the Punto? I was there.

Oh, you're coming down the other way.

I've just come down the road here and I've seen this car swerve.

I couldn't really see why it swerved with it being so dark.

And then I noticed that there were five horses in the middle of the road

and the car's hit one of them and the other four have all run off

down the side of the road.

So I've pulled over and managed to retrieve one of the horses.

And another gentleman got out, he managed to keep the other three pinned in to one side.

'The witnesses confirm the driver had a very lucky escape.'

He hasn't really seen this animal

until it's been in the road in front of him,

so his chances of reacting and avoiding it is nil.

And the thing's just been on top of him straight away.

So it's a fairly traumatic thing for the driver of the car.

Something of that size and weight coming towards the windscreen of your car,

the natural thing you're going to do is kind of protect your face

and probably let go of the steering wheel and let go of all control of the car.

And in fairness, that could've swerved across into some oncoming cars

and we could've had a serious head-on collision,

but as it works out, the driver's done remarkably well.

'Now that he's worked out the sequence of events

'and cleared the driver of blame, Wayne examines the car

'to try to reconstruct exactly what happened

'when it hit the half-ton horse.'

If the bottom of the car here has gone under its legs,

the body of the horse would've been flung onto the windscreen

and the roof itself, as you can see there,

so it's probably taken a fair old impact, has the car.

And that's obviously where the body of the horse has landed, so it's then come off the car.

It's probably gone over the top of the car, looking at it,

and scraped off down this side. The car's naturally come to a stop.

So I'm quite happy with the speeds that he's given me, around 35 miles an hour.

I wouldn't disagree with that, I think that's fair in view of the wet conditions.

'It's now been 20 minutes since the accident

'and the vet still hasn't arrived to deal with the distressed horse.

'Several workers from a nearby stables are holding the injured animal down,

'both to stop it hurting itself further or causing more chaos on the road.'

We're quite keen to open the road, but we can't distress the horse any further.

It's in quite a bad way and the main thing is we've got the welfare of the animal to consider

as well as everybody else,

but we'll certainly get it open as soon as we can,

it's just a matter of waiting for the vet to get here

to either put the horse to sleep or if we can look at getting the horse

removed from the scene and out of the way, if the vet's happy, then we'll do that.

'While they wait anxiously for the vet to arrive...

'..15 miles away, just off the M62 in west Leeds,

'the cops are tracking a speeding car.'

As soon as I turned round and began to follow them,

I could see that they were twice the speed limit,

so straight away you're trying to get resources in place

to put a stop to any potential pursuit.

'As more information comes in on the car,

'the cops have another reason why they want to stop the car and talk to the driver.'

'Other police units, including PCs Rob Jones and Ben Waite, are making their way to help.'

There was every chance that it was the kind of car that would fail to stop for us if we asked it to.

Given his manner of driving, how he was pushing people out of the way,

Ben and I felt a need to get to Mick to help him with that just in case.

'As PC Mick Roffe's onboard camera shows,

'at times the Seat driver is pushing 90 miles an hour.'

And he's headed for the busy city centre.'

Our main focus there

is to not get into a pursuit in a city area at that time of night

with bad guys, because it's all just going to end badly.

We're just coming onto the 58, mate.

'The cops need to take action now before the car leaves the relative safety of the ring road.'

We are coming towards you on 58.

"I'm into the underpass. Stick with me."

OK, mate.

Mick's got behind it and it appears to be trying to get away from him.

We're behind him now, giving him reinforcements.

'As Rob and Ben catch up to Mick's unmarked car,

'he puts on his blues and prepares to stop the silver car which is just ahead of him.'

Whoa!

Hey! Chill out! Ey up! BLEEP not going nowhere, you BLEEP!

Oi! Wind your neck in.

What's wrong with you? Nowt. Why you following me?

Driving like that, we think it's nicked.

Lads, we'll start again in a second. We're all right. I BLEEP!

You've got just to try and calm it down, because it's only going to escalate,

so you've just got to take a step back. Instead of shouting as well,

you've got to come down and say, "Look, guys, it's only going to go one way,

"you're detained, you're cuffed, you are going to be searched. Just calm yourselves down."

'The cops want to know a bit more about who they're dealing with,

'so while Mick runs checks on them,

'Rob talks to the driver about why he was speeding at 90 miles an hour.'

I'm a wanted man, me. I've got a few enemies. Have you? Yeah.

I thought I might have been getting shot. If you're moving, you can't get... What?

As long as you keep moving, what's the problem? You haven't got to drive faster.

They shoot... These BLEEP shoot out of cars these days.

He thought there were people after him and he was going to be the victim of a drive-by shooting,

like we're in South Central Los Angeles and not Leeds.

What have you got two phones for?

Bitches and wife. HE LAUGHS

'Now things have calmed down, the driver's claiming he's a reformed character.'

My joy-riding days are behind me now. Give over with you!

'But Mick's sure the men were trying to get away from him.'

I got in behind them and they absolutely nailed it.

They were twice the speed limit and they were absolutely flying.

We got onto the underpass section, which is the inner ring road,

and it's two lanes of traffic and you can't get anywhere else,

but he was in and out, lane one, lane two, trying to force his way through,

so it had all the hallmarks to me that they were going to fail to stop.

I've been pulled in yesterday and today!

It must be the way you're driving!

'Information coming back from the police national database

'reveals both men are well-known to the police.'

Having stopped and spoken to them and found out who they are,

they're prolific burglars,

so their MO is to basically break into people's houses,

steal car keys and steal high-value vehicles.

Jump out for us.

'The cops decide to take the men in for questioning,

'but before they do, Rob searches the driver.'

There's nowt you shouldn't have? No.

No gear, no drugs, no guns, no...

They're all in the boot. They're all in the boot, are them?

They were very, very confident, a lot of bravado, a lot of banter. That can usually mean two things.

It can mean, one, they're trying to throw us off the scent, or two, they haven't got anything.

You've got some cash in that pocket.

How much cash you got on you? Not a lot.

What do you call not a lot? That looked quite a lot to me.

In my pocket? Yeah. About 300 quid, isn't it?

It's Friday night. What's that got to do with owt?

You're stopping me from partying.

'The men and their car will be taken to Leeds Bridewell Police Station.

'Back in Birkenshaw, just off the M62,

'PCs Andy Bell and Wayne Baker

'are waiting for an emergency vet to arrive

'to treat a badly injured horse hit by a car.'

I do know a lot of people who have horses

and I know there's a lot of very upset young girls

who were coming out of this lane to our left with the horses.

We understand that the farm is where the horses are from up here

and they use this field during the day,

so the horses have come down the lane,

I think they've been unsupervised, and they've come into the road

and that's when the collision's taken place. But it's traumatic for everybody

cos there's blood and the horse has suffered quite a nasty break to one of its legs, so it's not very nice.

One of the main considerations I had when I was there

was whilst we'd closed the road to traffic,

we still had pedestrians coming down.

Can you two be really big for me and just stay there?

I'll have a quick word with, is it Dad? Yes.

He's done nothing wrong, don't worry. I just want to have a quick chat with Dad but without you.

There's a horse that's really badly injured

and I don't want the children walking past it if it's going to distress them.

Just to make you aware, it is laid in the road, there's a lot of blood.

A lot of children go horse-riding and just seeing that sight

might live with them for a little while, so we don't want the kids going near.

But certainly, people that are involved with the horse

and the owners of it,

they've obviously been upset, they're crying, they're hugging each other,

so I think we know what's likely to happen when the vet gets here.

I think they're going to put the horse to sleep to put it out of any pain and suffering.

So I think they're sort of preparing themselves for that now.

'With the vet struggling to get through the backed-up traffic and the horse increasingly distressed,

'the motorway cops have arranged for firearms officers to attend.'

What are you looking to do? Well, we might have to try and dispatch it ourselves,

but we're going to need a lot of space, if that's all right, mate. Right.

We, as police officers but also as human beings,

want to have the thing put out of its misery straight away.

And the sooner we can do that, the better.

Our force supervision have dispatched the firearms cars

with a view to, in effect, dispatching the horse on the scene here.

At the moment, we need to look at getting the roads closed

for quite some distance so they can work safely.

It's important that we don't, you know, shock people, upset people

as a result of something we do, but we've also got to balance that

with the fact that the horse was unlikely to survive.

'The road's been shut for half an hour and the traffic stretches back to the M62, three miles away.

'Fortunately, the vet has finally made her way through the jam.'

Some of the logistics that we have in terms of whether a firearm is used or not

is the locality of where we are. There's some houses here.

The type of weapon that they'd have to use

and the ammunition that they'd have to use, there'll be scattering behind it from the ammunition,

so it's not ideal for us to use firearms, really.

So the fact that the vet's here now is superb, cos they can deal with it

and we don't necessarily have to go down those lines anymore.

You know that as soon as the vet arrives,

a lethal injection will put the thing to sleep.

And that relieves a lot of tension and strain and emotion

from the people who are involved.

As upsetting as it is, I don't want to see any animals put down,

I don't want to see any suffering to any of them,

but we've still got to consider the travelling public,

the fact that we've got the road closed,

the fact that there may be other people around here that are a little bit traumatised and upset

by what they've witnessed or seen laid on the ground,

so we've got to consider, sort of, the wider picture

for everybody else, really,

and make sure that we're doing the best thing by the animal, best thing by the owners and everyone involved,

but also we're dealing with it as expeditiously as we can

so we cause as little disruption to everybody else.

'While the traffic and the cops wait for the vet to put the injured horse to sleep...

'..30 miles away near Wakefield,

'officers Mick McQuade and Dale Anderson are just starting their night shift.'

We're straight out of the door, as soon as we've started, we've had a message

of a serious collision, one that sounds pretty much as serious as they get on the motorway.

A car's apparently trapped underneath a heavy goods vehicle.

'The crash is on the M1, just five miles south of their Wakefield base.'

For me, the priorities are obviously for the life and limb of the people in the car.

If it has gone underneath a truck, the likelihood of it being very serious is very highly probable.

Nine-zero, we're ten seconds away.

'Tonight, Dale is acting sergeant,

'so it's his responsibility to manage the investigation.'

An officer has already got the scene as such.

What we're trying to do is get some cones out just to protect us.

There's not really much point in us all being up there

when there's cars coming at 70, 80, 90 miles an hour behind us.

'His first job is to make the scene safe for him and other officers.'

Can you help us get it coned off?

'Only then can he concentrate on finding out what's happened.'

This is literally walking into the unknown.

We're looking at a car there. Unless there's a third vehicle involved,

it may not be as serious as first thought.

But, in fact, there is another vehicle up ahead

which is certainly wedged into the under bars of the heavy goods vehicle.

Luckily, it's passenger side. Let's just hope there was only a driver in it.

When you open that door and it's dark, you don't know what you're going to be greeted with.

It could be an empty seat or, to the extreme,

you could be dealing with a dead body in there.

'But no-one's trapped inside the car,

'and amazingly, it appears there are no serious casualties.'

Is everybody out? Yeah.

When you open the door and you realise,

even though injuries may be serious, they're not life-threatening,

it changes the sort of approach entirely.

'Two cars and an HGV are involved.

'One car has got off lightly but another has sustained major damage.'

Once we realised everyone was OK, the focus goes onto

trying to highlight who was actually involved and who was driving,

because there was clearly far too many people walking up and down the hard shoulder

to have been involved directly.

People had clearly come afterwards somehow.

And we need to make sure we're getting a true account early on.

Were you involved or have you come afterwards? I got a phone call...

'The men who were in the cars all appear to know each other,

'and to add to the confusion, another car full of their friends has stopped to get involved.'

Which one are you driver of? This one.

I'm not a driver.

Wait a minute. Keep them here till we've got drivers.

Keep them here till we've got drivers.

It was quite a confusing scene,

because we were expecting to see one car and one truck involved in a collision

and that's not what we were greeted with. That's not very uncommon.

We also dealt with the unusual scene of ten people stood on the hard shoulder.

Who's got the key to this? Give me the key.

Until we've found out who the drivers are, I don't want anybody to leave. I'm the driver. Of this? Yeah.

Who's the driver of that? It's him. What's his name?

If he's rung you, he's got to have told you. What's his name? Not what you call him. Ohmo.

Right, I've got keys to that until we get the drivers.

We were wanting to find out who's to blame and who's the offenders

and we're wanting to make sure we get the right people.

Because we don't always, funnily enough, get told the truth.

'Dale's priority is to identify the drivers of the two damaged cars,

'the black Astra that's crushed under the HGV

'and the blue Seat that's hit the crash barrier.'

Which car were you driving? That one. You were driving that one? All right.

And my mate was driving that one. Who was driving the Astra?

Can you just keep hold of him for the time being?

'Having identified the driver of the blue Seat,

'Dale needs to verify who was driving the black Astra.'

Can I just confirm who was the driver of the Astra?

I don't know. The one I've been with down at the bottom was in the front passenger.

Right. So... Cos everyone's pointing the finger of the Astra driver at this guy.

Is it your car, the Astra? Yeah.

You were driving it? Yeah. Yeah.

'A full statement will have to wait until the man's been seen at hospital,

'but at least Dale has managed to sort out who the key players are.'

I've got everybody's details from the Seat. I've got driver detail of the Astra.

So... Astra? Yeah, which was under here. I thought it was a BM.

It's a Mark 4 Astra. Oh.

Right, if you've got the details... I've got the drivers.

I've got the Seat so we'll check everybody else. Right.

'Now the cops know who's involved,

'they can move on to finding out who caused the accident.'

Many millions of journeys are made on a motorway daily

and not many end like that,

so you've got to ask what's gone wrong in this circumstance to cause this.

'As the investigation continues...

'..ten miles away in Leeds,

'PC Ben Waite is bringing in the two men who were stopped

'after hitting speeds of 90 miles an hour on the city's inner ring road.'

You've got your ski jacket on, buddy. We're getting out in a second.

'While they're taken in for questioning,

'Ben and PC Mick Roffe search the car for anything that might explain

'why they seemed so keen to avoid being stopped.'

Keep an eye on these boys.

Look at the belts clipped underneath them. Yeah.

Clipped in underneath the seat so they can get round.

And then if you come round the back, you can see that they're clipped...

..around the back of the seats. There's no way they can be worn.

Both of them are like that. It's the usual MO. They clip them out of the way and they're out and running.

Happy under the bonnet, mate.

Unfortunately, there's been no items found or any items in relation to going equipped to steal,

so they're going to be released.

But they commit an offence by not wearing a seat belt, so we'll deal with him for that.

We like to deal with anything positively as best we can,

so they'll both be getting seat belt tickets.

'The men won't be prosecuted for speeding

'because Mick didn't have time to run an average speed check

'over a long enough stretch of road.'

These guys I only followed for a short distance

and ultimately, when we got into the underpass, they'd come down to the speed limit,

purely because other cars had stopped them going fast.

Inner ring roads and that kind of urban motorway,

two lanes, very fast-flowing traffic, are very dangerous places.

Had they continued to drive at that kind of speed,

I would've dealt with him for speeding.

You're lucky you're only getting a seat belt ticket.

Do you want to watch the video, see how quick you were going?

Yeah, exactly. You're lucky.

At the end of the day, if that's all you can find on that particular occasion, it's all you can deal with.

Wearing your seat belt is important.

I still don't want them to go through a windscreen

and end up killing or seriously injuring themselves or anybody else.

Right, see you later, fellas. Cheers, lads.

'Seven miles south of Bradford,

'the vet has put down the horse which was badly injured when a car hit it.

'The driver is still at the scene.'

It was an accident and... you didn't stand a chance.

'It's a shock to the whole community.'

It's a tragic, tragic accident

and, you know, you feel for everybody involved.

It's just very, very distressing. But at the end of the day, no human life was lost.

But the devastation that the death of the horse

is going to cause the owner is beyond words. It's very distressing.

'Until now, the surviving horses have been corralled in the field.

'As they're led back to the stables,

'local farmers are helping to clear the blood and debris from the road.

'Meanwhile, the driver is still struggling to come to terms with the accident.'

It hasn't really sunk in yet.

I think I'm still in shock a bit.

It's never nice, is it, when an animal or person gets hurt.

He probably had no idea what he'd hit and what was happening

during that few seconds around the impact,

and that thing's come through the windscreen.

I don't know what he was going through at that moment

but it wasn't a good place and I wouldn't want to go through it.

'With the road finally open,

'the three-mile backlog of traffic begins to clear.'

As you can see, once we get our vehicle moved,

the road's good to go, so we're back up and running.

'Keeping the roads open is a priority,

'but that doesn't mean the cops aren't affected by the accident.'

Sometimes members of the public think, when we're at these kinds of incidents,

"They appeared, the facade was that they're not caring

"and why are they not upset like we all are?"

And it is exactly that. It's a facade that we put on

to prevent us... so we're able to do our job and deal with what we've got.

When we think about it afterwards, that's when it becomes upsetting.

'On the M1, the crash investigation involving an HGV,

'a black Astra that ended up underneath it

'and a blue Seat that struck the barrier is continuing.

'PCs Dale Anderson and Mick McQuade are trying to piece together

'the events leading to the crash.

'They suspect one or both cars were out of control before they hit the HGV.'

At the moment, we're just trying to establish the position of each vehicle

just prior to the collision and who's the blame, basically.

'They're speaking to everyone involved

'but each has a different story to tell.

'With the Astra driver on his way to hospital,

'Dale focuses on the driver of the blue Seat.'

Come and have a chat with me and just tell me what's happened.

We were driving... All right. Bear in mind, the motorway's not empty

and other people have told us what's happened, so please... I was driving about 75, 80 miles per hour.

I was driving. I don't know where my mate is cos I've not seen his car.

So what's happened, all of a sudden, something's hit me from the side.

'Dale seeks out the other witness, the HGV lorry driver,

'in the hope he may be able to shed more light on events.'

Hello, sir. Can you tell me anything what's happened so that a car's ended up in the side of your truck?

I heard this almighty bump into the side of me

and then this car, this Seat Leon,

started turning about in front of me.

I thought I was going to crash into it again.

And then it just managed to move a little bit more

and ended up halfway on the grass.

So when I came to a halt here, this other car came from nowhere

and crashed into the side of the trailer.

How the guy got out and walked away from that, I don't know.

I don't know if all these guys are together or what.

OK, thanks, sir.

'If the cars were switching lanes at speed,

'it could explain what caused the accident.'

Let's have a look down the side of this Seat, see if we can find any damage,

which will say which side it was on.

Mick. 'The cops believe the Astra driver

'may have been overtaking the Seat on the inside and hit it

'before spinning under the HGV.'

There's a lot of damage to the rear offside.

I think that's where the initial impact is between them,

between the Astra and this,

which would suggest the Astra's in lane one.

I think the Astra's been in lane one.

What we're doing is, we're piecing together a big jigsaw.

We take into account what people say, we take into account what we see,

and we just try and put a picture together of what happened.

'The investigation will continue.

'But the evidence so far points to the Astra driver,

'whose car ended up under the lorry, being at fault.'

The main thing is to prove... If there are any offences, we are keen to prove

who has committed the offences and bring them to task, really.

Cos these people do need dealing with quite thoroughly

to prevent road collisions and deaths on the road.

'Britain has just over 2,000 miles of motorways.

'They're among the safest roads in Europe,

'as long as you're in a vehicle.

'But for pedestrians, there's nowhere more dangerous.'

You drive along, your radio's on, you're comfortable, you're warm,

you don't really take into account the dangers of roads.

If you stand at the side of a road like that

and see the traffic going past, it's absolutely frightening.

'Not surprisingly, it's illegal for pedestrians or cyclists

'to use the motorway at any time.'

A lot of people have no problem at all

just walking in between two motorway junctions if it's a short distance,

they think they're safe on the hard shoulder. But they're not.

'And at night, when visibility is poor,

'the motorways are particularly dangerous.

'On the A1M near Pontefract,

'Phil Stonebanks and Dave Robson are on patrol.'

What the bloody hell?

Jesus!

Tango-nine-zero.

On the opposite carriageway, we've just seen two young teenagers

on pedal cycles, cycling down the A1.

We're going to try and turn round to catch them.

Only looked about probably 12, 13 years old,

but we're just going to see if we can head round and intercept them

and just find out who they are, where they're from and what they're doing on the motorway.

"Just confirm, pedal cyclists travelling on the southbound carriageway?" Yep.

They're on the southbound carriageway travelling north.

This is our job. "OK, thank you."

Maybe they've disappeared already. They should be somewhere round here.

'The cyclists may be locals, taking a late-night shortcut.'

This is where they were.

I'm guessing they've disappeared down the embankment onto the road below.

Certainly not round here.

Unfortunately, we weren't able to get to them. We had to go up to the next junction, turn and come back.

By the time we'd done that, they'd disappeared off the network.

They might do that on a regular basis,

cycling up and down the motorway,

so eventually it's likely that someone will hit them.

We don't want that to happen, so it'd be nice to catch them

and just take them home and suitably advise them in front of their parents,

cos I've no doubt the parents have no idea what they're doing.

So it's an accident waiting to happen, something like that.

If we had found them, they would've had somewhat of a dressing down, to say the least.

Cos they're just putting themselves and everyone else in so much danger and they haven't got a clue.

That's what they need. Maybe they don't get it at home, I don't know.

But they've got to realise that motorways are just not safe places to play.

'But taking shortcuts on the motorway is a huge problem for the cops,

'especially where the roads meet built-up areas.'

If an opportunity presents itself to get home ten minutes quicker, people take it.

It's just not worth it. Would you walk down a railway line?

I dare say most people wouldn't. So what's the difference?

The outcome will probably be the same if you're involved in something.

'It's 3am on the M621 near Leeds.

'The city and the roads leading into it are quiet.

'But PCs Mick McQuade and Dale Anderson still have work to do.'

We've just been dispatched to a call of a male on the motorway

waving his arms around, possibly chasing another male on the carriageway.

It's an urban motorway.

We do quite often get people coming from the estates

onto the network for all kinds of reasons,

one of which is possible mental health issues.

When we receive a call like that, it's so far away from what you'd class as a normal act,

someone running across a motorway or running up a hard shoulder.

Coming into the area where he's been reported walking on the motorway.

Obviously Dale's slowing down now

just in case he is in the middle of the carriageway or there has been a collision.

'On average, 35 people are killed or seriously injured

'on the hard shoulder each year.'

Ey up. There he is. He's running!

My first thoughts are, what is he running from?

I'm expecting him to say he's running away from some disaster in his life.

'So the man's first question isn't quite what they're expecting.'

How do.

How far can who go?

Where do you live? I'm in Leeds, but I'm walking as far as I can.

Why are you walking as far as you can? It's part of the group.

What group? The rag. What rag? They are all in group A.

No, it's as far as... You've had a few beers tonight, haven't you?

Huh? You've had a few beers tonight. As far as I can to, like, Calais and wherever I can go.

I certainly never saw it coming.

I never expected him to say he was trying to run to France.

You'll not get very far on the motorway at this time of night.

You're likely to get knocked over. What's your name?

Cal. You just sit in our car with us, Cal.

Is it university mates you're out with?

Group A, like, as far as you can.

It would appear that

the idiot of the night award goes to this chap.

Him and his university friends seem to have had a few too many to drink

and decided to see who can get the furthest away.

I think this guy was aiming to get to Calais.

Which is, er...

It's only about a 260-mile drive and a 22-mile swim from where we are,

so he maybe had a chance if we weren't so quick getting here,

but we'll see what he's going to say and that will determine how we're going to deal with him, really.

But one thing's for sure, he's not staying here.

You are having a laugh, aren't you?

No, honestly, I'm... Yeah?

HE LAUGHS

You're being serious, aren't you?

No, it's the group that end up as far as they can.

There's people further down than me, so... How are you spelling Cal, with a C or a K?

James Bailey, then. Eh? James Bailey.

Every time we asked him, he gave a different name.

We'll start again. What is your name? My name is James, like Cal. James Bailey in Leeds.

At that point you're thinking, "Is he just trying to avoid getting into trouble?"

Right, so your official name is Callum, but you're called, you use James, do you?

They call me Cal. Oh, right. No, go James.

Like, James Bailey. I'm not familiar with the student area of Leeds.

And it transpires that's the name of an accommodation building.

What year of university are you in? First year.

Is it fair to assume that when you've not got however many pints of alcohol in your belly,

you're an intelligent person? Yeah, I'll go home with whatever you've got.

Sorry? I'll go home with... Cos it's meant to be the first year.

OK, I appreciate high jinx at university and such, and you're just wanting to have a good time.

No, I have to go home now. No, now you're going to listen for a minute,

because you're running down a motorway flagging your arms.

Members of the public are ringing us

because they're concerned about you for several reasons, all right?

We don't know whether you're going to try and do something to yourself up here.

We don't know if you're running away from something, because to me,

it takes something pretty extreme to get me walking, jogging, running,

anywhere near a hard shoulder when it's not related to my work.

Yeah, that's fair enough. Because one of them hits you at 50 miles an hour...

You're BLEEP. Yeah, you're not waking up in the morning. OK?

His inhibitions were totally out of the window,

he did not know the gravity of the situation he was facing.

He had no idea of the possible consequence.

'It's not just the cops who are concerned about his welfare.' PHONE RINGS

Is that going to be one of your friends worried about you?

No, she's gone, kind of, near Dover so...

She's near Dover? Yeah. How drunk are you?

I'm not as bad as... Do you mind if I answer that?

Yeah, yeah. Is that somebody else who's taking part in this game? Yeah. What's their name? Anna.

Hello?

At the minute, your friend's sat in the back of a police car on the motorway on the M621.

Yeah, that's probably a good way to sum it up.

Maybe a clear mind at the other end of the phone.

Maybe somebody could fill in the gaps for us, tell us what's going on.

Did you get any sense out of her? Yeah.

All right. She says there's no game taking place tonight.

You've been in Leeds city centre. Is that right?

No, it's a game, but... What have you been taking?

Literally, just like vodka and coke.

Coca-Cola? Coca-Cola, yeah.

Have you not take anything else? Looking at your eyes,

they are the most dilated I've ever seen.

I've never took anything other than Coca-Cola.

Could somebody have put something in your drink? Not from what I'm aware.

I took the same amount as the girls took.

Well, I beg to differ, cos she sounds quite coherent and you're not.

'If Callum's drinks were spiked, then he may need urgent medical attention.'

It was just a moment when maybe the penny dropped

and this lad's not the usual drunk

and we maybe need to do that... take that extra step

to make sure he's going to be OK at the end of the day.

Callum. Yeah? What I'm going to do is I'm going to take you down to the LGI. All right?

Because I think you should be getting checked out because of your level of intoxication.

I'd like to think if it was a member of my family,

or my children, and the police had dealt with them,

that they did deal with them fairly.

If that means forcing them to go to the hospital or even arresting them,

I'd rather that than potentially have them injured or come to some harm.

'Callum may have been saved from a nasty brush with the motorway traffic.

'But 25 miles away, there has been a serious accident.

'PCs Lindsey Pickles and Andy Barron

'have just received a call to assist with a crash on the A58.'

POLICE RADIO CHATTER

'On their way to the scene, Lindsey's getting an update.'

4-1, can you just repeat your last, please?

1-20, received, we are en route now.

'It's another accident involving cars and horses loose on the road.

'This time it's cost a human life.'

"I'm believing so. I'll get back to you very shortly, but I'm believing so."

It sounds like there've been some horses in the carriageway.

It's quite a major route, Rochdale Road, isn't it? It's a fast road. Yeah.

So if he's just been faced with the two horses in the road,

the likelihood is he's had no... no way to avoid them.

It's a fast road over the top, so it's unlit and it's a national speed limit,

so it's quite likely that this car involved

will have been travelling at speed.

Clear left.

How are we doing ID-wise, Leslie?

'Officers will soon be on their way to inform the deceased man's family.'

Are there other casualties in the other vehicle?

'Lindsey also works as a family liaison officer,

'so understands what a tough call that can be.'

You've got to hope that you say the right things. You know what you've got to say.

And it's the most tragic news that you're ever going to tell anybody.

You can't imagine, really, what it's like for somebody to tell you

that you've lost your son, your daughter.

Erm, you can never imagine it.

We knew how serious the incident was whilst we were en route.

But the actual gravity and what we were met by,

it's hard to... it's hard to describe, to be honest.

Literally, as we get to the scene,

we're more or less upon the horses that are in the road.

It was... It was horrific.

'Lindsey and Andy are briefed by the first officers who arrived on the scene.'

Three vehicles involved.

I very briefly spoke to the Corsa driver,

he's been coming down from Littleborough this way.

He's seen the horses just appear out of nowhere, cos it's black and it's dark.

He's slammed on. The Saab has been travelling up here, he's not seen them and gone into both of them.

Right. I think he's hit the first one. So is it the Corsa he's clipped

post-collision with the horses? Or is there another vehicle?

No. Horses and then the Corsa. And then there's another vehicle, as well? Yes.

Is that travelling behind the Corsa? I presume so. Right.

It's imperative for us as investigators

to find out exactly what happened

to put things in place to prevent it happening again.

We're waiting for Collision Investigation then SOCO.

And obviously getting patrol officers about the identity of the horses, as well. Yeah.

'Before the investigation team arrive,

'the cops try to establish where the horses came from.'

I wonder if they own horses, cos that looks like it's fenced in, doesn't it?

Shall we go have a look?

Obviously the investigation starts at the collision scene,

and as much information and evidence that we can get from that scene

to build a picture as to what's gone on is absolutely crucial.

I'm just looking to see if that's an entrance to that farm but it's not.

It was difficult to assess that scene because it was so very dark.

There was no moon. It was overcast. So there was no artificial light, there was no street lighting.

You had to sort of have a look at where the horses were

and then walk down the road and see where the cars were.

It hampered the investigation initially because you couldn't see everything all at the same time.

And it's much, much easier if you can see the entire scene.

'Six people are killed on Britain's roads every day,

'and in England and Wales, a coroner's inquest is always held after a fatal accident.'

Somebody's lost a life here so we need to establish what's happened

in as much detail as we can.

More so for the family.

Attending something like that, where somebody's lost their life,

it is emotionally very, very draining.

You start thinking about how you might feel if you'd lost a loved one.

'The Specialist Collision Investigation team are on their way.

'Until they've examined the scene, the road will remain closed.'

Morning. Hi, there. You're going to have to turn around, I'm afraid.

I take it you've come from one of the houses up this road? We shut it further down.

They have the ability to completely reconstruct that collision,

and quite often do it very, very accurately.

And only when we do that can we answer most of those questions for the families left behind.

'While Andy and Lindsey wait for the collision investigators to arrive...

'..over in Leeds General Infirmary,

'the student found running along the motorway by PCs Dale Anderson and Mick McQuade

'is being checked by medical staff.'

Sorry about this. We wouldn't ordinarily have brought him in

but one minute he's talking something which is reasonably sensible,

the next second he's saying he's trying to swim to Calais.

He's not sure if his drink's being spiked,

so we thought we'd better get him checked over rather than dumping him at his digs and leaving him be.

I need to know if you have taken any drugs this evening.

I've taken... No. Apart from, like, what I drank.

Could your friends have given you anything

you've not been aware of? Not that I know of.

He could've had something accidentally, somebody could've slipped it into the drink.

It's quite easy to just slip an E tablet in

or something else that dissolves and there's no trace of it.

They don't taste it, or they can't see it, they easily can drink it and it's gone.

'If something has been slipped into his drink,

'then recovering in A&E is his best option,

'as opposed to a day trip to Calais.'

It wasn't the best route to take

because of what happened...

But if what had happened hadn't happened, I could have got further.

So it's just complete, pure luck, what happened.

I thought we'd got an understanding and an agreement

and we're intending to leave him at the hospital to be checked over.

Unfortunately, he had other ideas.

No, come here.

I thought we had an agreement. You're not going home.

No matter how hard we were trying, we cannot get this lad at this point in time

to see what is obviously common sense.

You can't make me go anywhere you want.

I'm happy to go home now. You seem to be misunderstanding the situation, all right?

We're not satisfied that you're of a sound mind to make these decisions.

Because we're not going to run the risk of you walking to the next dual carriageway or motorway,

all right, and doing exactly the same again and getting run over and killed.

We'd already gone to the extreme of getting him to the hospital,

just to let him walk away, how do we know we won't find him back on the motorway in 15 minutes' time?

How do we know we're not going to find him underneath a bus in Leeds city centre?

It's a free choice. No, it isn't, because you can't look after yourself. Can't I just walk home?

We're not sure that you can. You're not fit to look after yourself.

Right, go and sit yourself down.

'It's taken all of Dale's powers of persuasion to get him back inside.'

You get quite a lot of people wandering on the network.

It's usually from the neighbouring estates,

people up at this time of day wandering round.

MAN LAUGHS Is he coming out again? Oh!

'He's so determined that he's going to go home,'

he's never looked in our direction, he's just kept his focus in front.

As if by doing that, we're not going to see him and deal with him.

Get back in!

No, don't... I want you to spend an hour with these people.

Let them assess you again in an hour and if they're happy to release you, they'll tell you to go home.

You aren't walking home in this state. So go back in, speak to the nurses, give them an hour,

come round, sober up... Speak to the nurse with me. Right. Come on. I'll take you. Come on.

I just want to... No.

If we let you go home and something happens to you, I've got to tell your parents

why I let you go home on your own and come to harm.

We've all been there. We've all been teenagers into our 20s,

been given a bit of freedom and got ourselves into a bit of a state.

So I've got some sympathy with him.

He'd just had too much to drink.

'Eventually, the nurses agree that Callum is well enough to leave.

'And Dale and Mick are driving him home

'to be certain he doesn't find himself back on the motorway.'

I didn't... meant to end like this.

No, you wanted to get to Dover.

I've not come across a student who's tried to leg it to France before.

Will I come across one again? Hopefully not.

All right. Cheers. Thank you very much. See you. Next time,

keep it a bit more realistic and maybe aim for...

to actually get home rather than another country.

OK. See you later. You're going to have a monster of a hangover in the morning.

See you.

That's the future of our country.

THEY LAUGH

Hopefully he'll have learnt from what's happened,

and if he never faces a situation like that again,

well, surely it's an hour or two of our time that's been well spent.

'On the A58, west of Halifax,

'PC Andy Barron has made some progress

'in working out what happened to cause the fatal accident.'

From early indications of the witness accounts,

it would appear the driver of the Corsa had slowed down for the horses in the road.

However, unfortunately, it would appear that the driver of the Saab

hadn't seen the horses and went on to collide with them.

An adult horse

can weigh as much as a small car.

So the impact of a horse on a vehicle,

depending on where it actually hits, is going to be massive.

There was an extreme amount of damage. The roof was pushed down.

Erm, yeah, and the driver wouldn't have had much of a chance.

'The owner of the horses has been told of the accident.

'But the cops now need to find out why they were on the road in the middle of the night.'

The owners of the horses are down there. Right.

Are the officers getting an account? I don't know.

Cos we could do with CIU at some point with SOCO,

or just SOCO, going with the owners of the horse

and photographing where they were tethered and where they think they've escaped from.

Hello, mate, it's Andy Barron from the traffic department.

I understand you're with the owner of these two horses, is that right?

There is a possibility that the fencing had been tampered with.

And we may be looking at criminal damage.

There is a theory that the horses could've jumped the fence.

But unfortunately, we've got no witnesses or credible evidence at this time

that will say for certain which one of those theories it is.

'The Collision Investigation team have arrived and are beginning to inspect the scene.'

He's actually been pushed back at some point.

They're trained to basically reconstruct the collision

as it's happened, or from their calculations,

how they believe that collision's happened

and why that person's died as a result of that collision.

Look at that there. We've got a lot of damage round here. A lot of stuff's been taken out.

'The driver of the third car, a Fiesta, managed to avoid the other cars

'but struck the body of one of the horses.

'While the collision investigators examine the vehicles,

'Lindsey and Andy are at the hospital to get a statement from the injured driver of the Fiesta.'

Part of the investigation, and more importantly our role, is to speak to people.

Quite often they will forget things very, very quickly,

because it's been a traumatic experience for them

and they will push it out of their memory very quickly.

'He's injured, but it could've been much worse.'

You've had a lucky escape, by the sounds of it, haven't you?

Cos if you'd been a few seconds further forward,

it could've been you hitting this horse, couldn't it?

When I got into the car this morning, for the first time ever, it didn't start.

So I spent five minutes trying to get my car going.

Er, otherwise I would've been five minutes further up the road,

and I could've easily been that car that had the fatality in it. It was that close.

I spotted two cars obviously together on the right-hand side of the carriageway

and hazard lights on. So I thought there'd been an accident,

so I slowed down, and thought, "I'll go and see," cos I'm first-aid trained.

And I smashed into a dead horse on my side of the carriageway.

I went right over the top of that.

Erm, came down, my car veered over to the right and I managed to stop it,

so I got out and there was another guy coming towards me

and it was very apparent that the other guy in the car was dead.

I managed to feel that there was no pulse, I managed to see that there was no breathing,

but I couldn't get in to do any emergency resuscitation at all.

It was obvious that that was going to be a waste of time, anyway.

A lot of drivers will panic and just freeze and sit in the car

and wait for emergency services to arrive.

But this particular person, he had the sense, he got out

and he tried to do everything he possibly could

to make that situation better.

And it was a very, very desperate situation.

I don't think we'll ever get to the bottom of why those horses were in the middle of the road.

There are many reasons why these animals might get onto the road, and they quite often do,

and quite often it's through no fault of the owners,

and quite often it's through no fault of the drivers.

It could be one of those few collisions where

it's just an unfortunate accident, and it's happened with no-one entirely to blame.

'A coroner's inquiry into the accident concluded the driver's death was accidental.

'Just how the horses escaped from the field onto the road remains a mystery.

'The driver of the black Astra that hit the side of an HGV

'pleaded guilty to driving without due care and attention.

'He was fined £110 and given nine penalty points.

'No further action was taken against any of the other drivers.

'And the student who claimed his drinks were spiked

'after he was found walking along the hard shoulder by PCs Dale Anderson and Mick McQuade

'has made a full recovery.'

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