Dangerous Highways Motorway Cops

The motorway cops have to make instant decisions.

Yeah, we'll have him.

It gets worse, you should not have that either.

Getting it right can lead to an arrest.

Getting it wrong can leave the cops playing catch-up.

Decamp, decamp.

-Go on, Jonesy!

-Stand still!

But one thing's for certain.

Slow down. Use your eyes.

-On the roads...

-We need to get this moved.

..danger lies around every corner.

All it takes is losing your concentration for a split second.

There are fine lines about just carrying on your life as normal

to your world being completely torn apart

and you never looking at that day the same again.

On the M621 between Bradford and Leeds, PCs Rob Jones

and Mick Roffe are on patrol.

They're part of the

Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Roads Crime Team.

Their job is to target and disrupt criminal activity on the roads.

We hunt in packs and we work in pairs.

Whereas in the past you might be on your own,

you might think twice about stopping a car or you might lose something

by hesitating because you don't have the strength in numbers,

we have the strength in numbers.

We have the team readily available to deal with any issue.

They're ordered into Bradford,

where a car linked to a burglary is being pursued through he city.

But the local patrol cars have lost it.

Now it's up to Rob and Mick, teamed up with another unmarked car,

to track it down.

All we have to go on there, we had a partial registration

and not much else really,

so really strength in numbers - there was lots of us about -

we just flooded the area, hoping that this car would appear at some point.

Almost immediately, they come across a car fitting the description.

RADIO CHATTER

Just in case.

There's another Corsa here, mate.

This is going to be it.

The tension's building until you get close to it and you see, yeah,

that's the car that we're after,

that's the one that we're interested in.

X W X-ray Tango.

-This is it.

-Five six.

In this situation, the cops are trained to manoeuvre

one of their vehicles in front of the car and force it to stop.

Ideally, we'd have liked to have used two vehicles

so even if we have to make contact with it to stop it.

But, just as they attempt to make the stop,

the radio link between the two police cars fails.

This is it, Lima Mark one two.

This is it. This is it, Ross.

With the comms dropping out for those few seconds, we couldn't

get us heads together and work out what we were going to do.

The delay allows the driver of the car to work out what's

going on and he puts his foot down.

-Vehicle's lit up.

-SIREN WAILS

This guy is going to drive like a lunatic.

We are in a pursuit situation.

It is failing to stop at this time.

Vehicle is making off.

We're on Speeton Avenue.

Speed is 55 miles per hour.

Permission for T pack now, please.

When you first shout up on the radio and you tell the controller you've

got one failing to stop, I always feel like my voice is trembling.

Speed is now 80 miles per hour.

You're kind of concerned that if the control room hears that

they're going to think you're not properly in control.

Got brake action approaching traffic lights. Stand by.

Which is not true,

it's just adrenaline having the affect adrenaline has.

Their best chance of stopping the driver safely will be with

the help of air support.

It gives us the ability to back off,

take the pressure out of the pursuit,

and ultimately we know, in the back of your mind,

if the helicopter's there, they're not getting away.

Yeah, Tango five six, still on road. Is the helicopter available?

The helicopter isn't available and the motorway cops are on their own,

but the car is now heading towards Bradford's narrow backstreets.

He's more than likely a local lad,

he'll know those roads like the back of his hands.

So it's quite difficult to put a coherent strategy into place

to stop him when he knows where he's going.

Um, it's his home patch, at the end of the day.

The odds are stacking up against the cops...

but they're determined to keep the Corsa in their sights.

Just four miles from the back streets of Bradford,

the motorway cop team of Aidy Brown

and Matt Hemingway are in the middle of their nightshift.

The mundane nine until five, Monday to Friday thing, it's not for me.

I like to come to work, get the keys, go out and...

..not know what's coming.

Tonight, Aidy and Matt are en route to the M621

on the outskirts of Leeds.

There's been a report that a trailer has flipped over...

and we don't know whether it's still in the carriageway or not,

so we're on the way down to make sure everybody's OK and see

if we can get it moved.

The area where we think it's happened,

there's a big sweeping bend, so it's quite possible they've gone round

that bend a bit too fast and the trailer's tipped them over, so...

It's there.

People are not taking much notice.

Any accident on a bend could have serious consequences.

The burger van is hidden from view and, with vehicles coming round

the bend at speed, the cops need to clear the road as soon as possible.

All it takes when you're travelling at 60 miles per hour,

especially in a heavy goods vehicle,

is losing your concentration for a split second.

If you close your eyes for the click of a finger...

..you're driving a big giant weapon really.

I hate being on the motorway.

In the live lanes and that, it's awful.

People just don't slow down.

It's an awful place to make you feel really exposed to these vehicles

that are flying past you.

Sometimes, I think that people don't realise that.

The burger van survived the crash pretty well,

much better than the Land Rover pulling it.

Obviously that's been towing this trailer.

I'm not quite sure yet why he's lost control of it,

but it's become detached and it's come skidding down the motorway.

Just got a wobble on and it rolled, hit the car.

-You all right? Everyone OK?

-Yeah, everyone's fine, thank you.

We're all strapped in so we're OK.

The real miraculous thing about this is that nobody else was injured.

Anybody could have been following this vehicle.

At the point when it flipped over, it went over into two lanes

and when you come round a bend, you don't

expect to see a burger van on its side.

So, how nobody else ran into it is a miracle.

Because the van is carrying gas canisters,

the fire brigade are on scene as a precaution.

The main concern for the cops is getting

the van off the motorway quickly,

but they discover a problem.

When it's come off the car, it's twisted this.

So whether we can somehow...

If we can force this round we'll be able to get it onto the X5.

This should be this way up so it can sit on the bar.

As the motorway cops work out how to shift the trailer,

Highways Agency officers slow the traffic down to prevent an accident.

You want to try and hook it up or what?

You can't turn that...

I know, but a bit of gentle persuasion.

All four wheels are all right.

We've got fire service there, ambulance,

Highways - every man and his wife were there.

He's not going to get X5 on that.

Can't twist it.

The longer they debate what to do,

the greater the threat from the speeding traffic.

If I'm stood there, I'm putting myself at risk and I'm in danger,

and I'm certainly not waiting for somebody else's decision

to decide what we're going to do.

So, Matt and Aidy decide to clear the road themselves.

It was a little bit no-nonsense, the way we got it moved.

Yeah, we dug a little bit of the road up

when we were doing it, but you ask anybody,

what would they rather have -

a bit of a gouge in the road that needed repairing or drive

into the back of this burger stall?

If it would have been any darker that could have caused

somebody some serious problems coming round the bend.

The battered Land Rover is also being moved.

This vehicle behind us is on its side. With the assistance

of the fire brigade, we're going to try and right the vehicle,

with a bit of assistance from us.

That's the plan.

As the Land Rover is wheeled onto the hard shoulder,

the last of the debris is cleared away.

Matt and Aidy's job is done

and they can leave the Highways Agency to reopen

the road for traffic to flow freely and safely around the bend again.

Back in Bradford, PCs Mick Roffe

and Rob Jones are still caught up in a dangerous high-speed pursuit,

and they have their own concerns

about what could lie round the next bend.

All he has to do is turn a corner during that pursuit

and run over a person, a child, and kill them.

Then the whole game changes.

Mick and Rob don't want to lose the Corsa,

but they also need to keep their distance.

You're very conscious not to push them too hard or push him

into making manoeuvres that they shouldn't be making.

Cos you're very aware that they're not

looking at what's in front of them,

they're more than likely paying a lot of attention to

what's behind them and seeing how close the blue lights are.

Speed is now 60.

Approaching lights on red, stand by...

It's a left, left, left through the red lights onto...

Little Horton Lane.

Going downhill.

Left, left, left onto...stand by...

Safety check.

Round a left-hand bend.

-Decamp. Decamp.

-SIREN SOUNDS

Go on! Here we go.

STAND STILL!

One runner. Me and Roffe are together.

'He can run all he likes.

'He's not going to kill anybody running.'

Whereas if he carries on driving like he was in the car,

the chances are that at some point he's going to have an accident.

He's gone to ground on the side alley off where we lost him.

Or where we decamped from.

The driver has vanished into the darkness.

-OK, thank you. Can you plan this?

-RADIO: ..search.

Just by way of description, white male.

I would guess something like 17, 19, 20 years of age. Slim build.

Dark blue Adidas tracksuit bottoms, dark hooded top, trainers.

Where this lad has run,

the last road I gave there is a school to the offside.

They were running up what appears to be a school.

There's a set of playing fields and I think the lad's there somewhere.

-I think we would've seen him run up there, Rob?

-Yeah.

He's got to go over here.

If he's gone up there we would've seen, he can't get over that fence

and he's got to dive over here or in that spare land.

A dog team is called in.

But they're too late to help.

HE SIGHS

It stings, the fact that they've got away,

because you always think, "What if we'd have had another five minutes

"and we could have got people and boxed it?

"What if I'd have done this? What if I'd have done that?"

I think if you don't do that you become complacent

and it doesn't make you as sharp and you're not as committed any more.

So I think it's good to have that sting,

to say, "Next time I will be better. Next time I will do better."

The driver jumped out of the car when it was still moving

and it has been badly damaged.

He has come to decamp here, door open, and has just smashed it into...

-He's jumped out and that has carried on and...

-Oh, right.

-..into the lamp post.

-Good job, well done.

This is all beginning now.

He's made a mess, hasn't he?

The car he was in is displaying one registration plate and the tax disc

is displaying another so the chances are it's a stolen car.

I've not had a chance to check the registration plate on the tax disc

yet but, like I say, the presumption is it's a stolen car.

Why else would he change the plates?

Doing burglaries, it's quite a common thing to do.

That way the vehicle can't be traced.

So, again, it's another line of enquiry and we see how far we get.

All they can do now is look for evidence.

Rob returns to the alleyway where they lost the driver.

You know he's off on his toes,

you're not going to get him there and then,

your brain switches to catching him in the long-term, if you like.

Basically, when the lad decamped and run up there,

Roffe and I have chased after him and as he got to a particular point

I seen something come to the right hand.

Either he's discarded it or it's just dropped out his coat

but it's come from him.

After we completed the search, I've gone back

and the two items are a William Hill betting slip from today,

with a time and a date on,

so I'm quite sure we'll be able to see who got that,

and the other thing is one of those shoe covers that you get

when you go around show homes or when Sky come to your house.

There's still a chance they can match the betting shop CCTV footage

with their own in-car footage to link the driver to the Corsa.

Can you see him drop a glove?

He ain't got gloves on when he comes out, which is a bonus, isn't it?

I mean, forensically that's ideal for us,

the fact that his fingerprints are going to be somewhere

within the cabin area of the car.

The fact that he's not wearing gloves on our video proves it.

And if we find fingerprints or some forensic link to him,

you know, he'll have some strong questions to answer

as to why his fingerprints are in the car, so to speak.

It's always nice to find something that you think,

"I know this particular item is going to link this car

"to the person that's run away

"and I can identify the person through this particular item."

So it's always nice, because you know in the long run

he's going to be arrested.

Both leads will be followed up tomorrow

and as the crime team head back into the centre of Bradford...

15 miles east, officers Phil Stonebanks

and Dave Robson are policing the A1 dual carriageway.

Even at this hour, Britain's longest road is still busy.

Phil and Dave have been called to an accident near Pontefract.

There is one HGV involved

and apparently it's blocking lanes two and three.

Obviously, the A1 is a very busy road

so it could potentially cause some major problems this morning,

depending how quickly we get it cleared.

They all seem to be breaking.

A flashing amber light that side. Here we go. Looks promising.

Here we go. Stop it a minute. Stop it here.

INDISTINCT RADIO COMMS

The motorway cops' first priority is to assess

the scale of the problem they face and alert the control room.

With the HGV, just to let you know, it's come in southbound.

Vehicle is currently jack-knifed in the central res.

Both carriageways are disrupted.

A jack-knifed truck is blocking one of the northbound lanes.

The crash barrier and tonnes of earth have been ripped up

-and dumped in the southbound lane.

-It was raining, it was pitch black.

There's no street lighting on that particular section

so basically everything was against us.

Slow down! Flipping heck!

I remember Phil screaming down the radio,

saying we need this traffic slowing.

Make sure they're stopping. Because they were just flying by.

Slow down!

Use your eyes.

Doing silly speeds, considering there's been an accident,

it's raining and there's debris on the road

and there's people stood in the carriageway,

including police officers and Highway Agency officers.

Use your eyes!

They don't slow down, they don't give us the time

and the space that we need to try and restore things back to normality.

That's what's so annoying and people lose lives because of that.

It's very frustrating.

We are just trying to get things back as they should be

and people just do not respect us for that.

They don't appreciate what we're trying to do.

Cheers, mate. Thanks.

My wife, I think, probably does worry about me when I go to work.

She never really says as much but you always know that,

you know, she has got that worry at the back of her mind.

As the blocked lanes are coned off,

Dave tracks down the driver of the jack-knifed HGV.

What happened?

-A deer skipped across just ahead of the junction.

-A deer ran out.

-From which side?

-Just ahead of the junction, there.

The driver swerved to avoid a deer that jumped out in front of him.

And what did you have to do? What was your immediate reaction?

The first thing I did was swerve it to the left.

I suppose it is just a natural instinct.

You're driving along, something runs out in front of you

and you just swerve to try and avoid it.

Assuming that is what has happened. He's been very lucky.

It could have been very nasty, could this.

It's obviously going to cause some chaos for the duration

until we can get the vehicle moved, but he's been very fortunate.

We're going to have to put a full closure on both ways, aren't we?

-HE can't leave it there, can he?

-It's certainly looking that way.

The speed these are coming down, there are signs out,

but they're still hurtling down at 50-60 mph.

Closing the entire dual carriageway is a drastic step to take

on such a major road, especially now.

It's now nearly five in the morning.

Basically, I'd call this time

about the start of the rush hour round here.

We're getting a lot more and more traffic,

it's going to be chaos before long.

The motorway cops will keep the road open

until a recovery team arrives to move the jack-knifed HGV.

But, with only one lane open, traffic is already building up,

and one part of the road is worrying Phil.

A bit concerned about the bend up there, where the vehicles are

going to be queueing back round the bend, causing further tailbacks,

and a possibility of another accident happening in the tailbacks.

In these wet and dark conditions, the tailback just ahead of the bend

could be hidden to oncoming drivers, who may not have time to react.

20 miles east, near Wakefield, officers Doug Lofthouse

and Paul Heaton are responding to another emergency call for help.

Yeah, we're sorted now, thank you.

At the moment, all we've got is a vehicle's collided

with a lamppost, it's in two halves

and we're uncertain whether anybody's injured or not.

The crash sounds severe.

The cops have to assume that someone could be seriously injured.

But the crash is 15 miles away in a housing estate

that Doug and Paul are unfamiliar with,

and it's taking them longer to get there than they'd like.

Nottingham's absolutely miles away, isn't it?

Other side of fricking Castleford, isn't it?

When they eventually get to the scene,

the car is surrounded by a group of drunk lads.

-Yo!

-Wahey!

-What's happened here, then?

-Lad's just walked off.

Someone smashed into me brother's house.

Although the car isn't in two pieces as reported,

it's still severely damaged.

-Is it your car?

-No.

We haven't charged him for parking, though, don't worry.

When you see a group of four to six young adult males

that are all well in drink -

well, it's quite fair to say that are drunk -

and you look at a car, you've got to sometimes put two and two together

and you think are any of those people there,

that have been involved in this collision,

whether they're the driver.

I don't want you shouting in my ear hole.

You can't...you can't...you can't do me for shouting.

-Yeah, I can.

-Don't push me.

-No, you pushed into me.

-No, you pushed into me, mate.

You pushed into me.

Listen, if you've nowt better to do than stand round here

and act like an idiot, that's fine, isn't it?

Act like an idiot?! I've come down to see my brother, mate!

-You carry on.

-A car's smashed into his garden!

It's not a right clever estate, this, there's a lot of dickheads about, you know what I mean?

-You're telling me!

-I came down to see if he was all right.

A job like that can very quickly...

Not spiral out of control, but become very, very difficult,

unless someone admits to being driving.

Is it one, or...?

See you later.

But the driver is not one of the drunks. He's gone missing.

Paul's immediate concern is to find him

in case he was injured in the crash.

The problem you have in impacts like this is internal injuries.

I mean, if it hit the door...

That's all intrusion, he would have been, wouldn't he?

Had the impact from the lamppost been six inches further across

towards the driver's side,

this could quite easily have been a fatality, no doubt about it.

The intrusion would have been far greater,

as in the car would have pressed possibly further in and maybe

hit the driver, just as it has here, you can see how much it's bent in.

Just as Doug prepares to go looking for the driver, he turns up.

-Is he all right?

-Yeah, he's said he's suffering from back pain.

I've sorted out an ambulance just to check him over.

Has he been drinking?

Oh, he's been drinking all right, yeah.

What we're going to do...

-Please tell them to cut it out, please.

-Yeah.

What we're going to do is a quick breath test.

We'll have to wait until this ambulance turns up.

How are you doing, pal?

I'm all right, mate. I've been silly, I've had a couple of drinks,

I ain't going to lie, I've had a couple of drinks, I've been silly.

Just slipped on the road there, straight into the lamppost,

do you know what I mean?

Although he wasn't, in my opinion, drunk, he was definitely

under the influence of... obviously been drinking alcohol,

just with the way his reactions were and looking at his eyes.

Obviously probably quite shocked, really, from what's gone on.

I mean, I ain't going to be stupid and run off or owt like that...

No, we're more concerned - look at the damage of the car,

-we're more concerned about you.

-Yeah.

I mean, I've got a bit of back injury here, but...

A very lucky young man, really, to come away unscathed

with a collision like that.

-What's the worst that can come out of this?

-What? Police..?

I mean, obviously, I gather my licence is going to be straight...

-What, driving offence-wise?

-Yeah.

If you're over the drink-drive limit, then you'll be banned.

Yeah, I gathered that, you know.

-How much have you had?

-Quite a bit.

-Not, not...

-More than two pints?

Well, I guess that, yeah, because I've been drinking them,

like, little stubbies.

-How old are you, Matthew?

-I'm 19, mate.

I'm not really anti people drinking, if that's what they want to do.

Maybe it's me that is a little bit...

Not got much hair to let down now, so maybe I don't go out any more,

but I'm definitely not anti-drinking.

'However, I am when it comes to getting behind the wheel of a car.

'Even having the smallest amounts, it's going to impair'

some of your decision-making, and people think,

as a general rule, "I can go and have two pints."

Well, it doesn't quite work like that.

Everybody's different, and my simple rule that I tell everybody,

whether that's the people I deal with or my own son who's driving,

is have absolutely nothing if you're going to drive.

80% of drivers aged between 17 and 24

are unaware of the drink-driving limit.

I'll hold it for you, if you want to lean forward a bit.

I know it's a bit difficult.

Right, so deep breath and blow.

That's it, keep on going like that. BLEEPING

Keep on going, that's it.

And he's looking at them going to court if he's over the limit,

losing his licence, which then can have knock-on effects

of losing his job, losing his house...

So what it's doing, it's just analysing

the breath sample you've just given.

It'll give us a reading... BLEEP

-What's that?

-You've passed.

-You've passed.

-Have I passed?

-Yeah.

You're one microgram under the drink-drive limit.

I mean, like I've told you, I'm being truthful,

I've had a couple of them stubbies, that's it.

You're one under. The limit's 35.

Had that gone above that, you'd have...

I mean, I'm grateful for that, but I'm not grateful...

You know what I mean? I don't need to be in this situation right now, you know what I mean?

He came back and blew 34, and the legal limit's 35,

so he was extremely lucky.

But I thought that were high then.

-Is that your car, then?

-Yes, it is. Yeah, I got it on finance, you know.

-Have you?

-Yeah.

-I hope you're insured.

Oh, yeah, I'm insured, like, just third party, fire and theft.

-Third party?

-Yeah, third party, fire and theft, that's what I mean.

Having only third party insurance

means the driver won't have to stump up to fix the lamppost,

but he'll get no payout for his wrecked car.

I mean, if I got it on fully comp, like,

it would have been about five or six grand, you know.

The cops will report him for driving without due care and attention.

-You can't get closer than that, can you?

-He's lost a lot of money.

-Yeah.

I mean, he's come back, that's the main thing.

And because his car was on finance

and he only had third-party insurance,

he will be paying for this accident for a long time to come.

The insurance company won't pay out for the damage to his vehicle.

In my opinion, that vehicle will be written off.

There were far too much damage to make it repairable.

I'd like to think that somebody like that,

being involved in a collision of that magnitude,

and coming back one under,

I'd like to think would make him think for the rest of his life,

"I'm not getting in a car when I've had a drink.

"I'll just leave it at home, because I'm lucky to be alive,

"I'm lucky to have my licence, and I've got to pay

"several thousand pounds in the next few years for nothing."

While this young driver contemplates how lucky he has been...

..14 miles west in Bradford, Officer Mick Roffe

is back out on the road and he has now teamed up with PC Ross Masters.

Who's in that?

Spare on her.

You get to know how each other works,

and in Mick's case, you know that if he starts looking at something,

it's worth attention.

Back Office 3-6, can you check for us?

It could just be an eye glance at a vehicle,

and you will know that he's interested in that vehicle

and it then snowballs from there. It goes from there, basically.

There's a lad in the passenger seat.

Yeah. Let's drop in behind a bit.

What's he doing, this lad?

'It's amazing what you can tell,

'when you get into it and you've done it for a few years,

'what you can tell from how a car looks.'

It was a very, very new car, but it had a wheel-trim missing,

it was dirty, it had some scrapes on it.

Straightaway you start to think, "Well,

"if I'd paid that amount of money for a brand-new Golf like that,

"I certainly wouldn't have it scraped,

"nor would it be dirty, and I'm sure all the wheel trims would be there."

Database is showing a mobility vehicle.

From Shipley.

The card is registered to a woman, but two young men are in it,

which raises Ross and Mick's suspicions.

Yeah, we'll have him, mate.

Stop.

Turn the engine off, pal.

-Your car, mate?

-Well, it's not exactly my car.

-Whose is it?

-The woman who I'm going to see. Motability car.

-It's whose?

-It's a Motability car.

-And whose car is it, then?

-My aunt - well, my best mate's mum.

-You allowed to drive it, no?

-Yeah, yeah.

Take your hands out of your pocket, pal. Put your phone down.

-Fully insured.

-Fully insured on it?

-Yeah.

-How come you're insured on your auntie's mobility car?

-Because I'm the named driver. I'm her carer.

-Oh, right enough.

-Seen a bit of action, this motor. It's banged up.

-Tell me about it.

-For a 61 plate, like.

-Tell me about it.

-Have you been in bother with the police before, mate?

-Yeah.

-What for?

A few year ago, just driving offences.

Never?

Put the interior light on for us, lads.

There's a funny smell coming from in here.

-A cannabis-y kind of smell.

-No.

-Are you sure?

-Yeah.

-All right.

We'll just check you two, and as long as you're all right,

you're on your way, honestly.

'Mick's speaking with the two lads'

and I'm looking at the passenger, and he's nervous.

He's twitching, he's constantly sort of looking straight ahead.

He was almost shaking.

At that point, you think, "Something's not right."

You look a bit nervous, pal.

-Got owt on you you shouldn't have, lads?

-No.

'The worst thing about our job is, and potentially the best thing,'

is you get to spot a liar straightaway.

As soon as you spot a liar, you think, "There's more to it."

Ross radios the control room to check up on the two men.

The passenger has no record, but the driver is well known to the police.

'Possession of class A. Got a violence marker

'for assaulting a police officer in 2007.'

That is everything you don't want to hear when you're talking to somebody.

Because at any moment, if he's done it in the past,

he's had the mindset in the past to do it, he may do it again.

I'm potentially looking at a threat there.

Been done for drugs before?

It was only going to go one way.

They were always going to be detained and searched.

Just pop out for us.

Just face the car and put your hands on the roof.

Have you got anything on you you shouldn't have?

-Got something in my wallet.

-You've got what, sorry?

-Something in my wallet.

-What have you got in your wallet?

-I've got, like, a bit of cocaine.

-All right, fella.

What's that for?

Just because you've been detained for a search.

-Ever been in trouble for drugs before?

-No.

'Right from being a teenager'

I've always been against drugs of any type...that are illegal.

And yeah, people have different stances, don't they?

For me, any drug that's illegal,

you shouldn't have it, and I'll deal with them for it.

Little bit of cocaine,

he admitted to having it before I started searching.

Probably about a gram.

Have you got owt else on you you shouldn't have?

No. You'll see when you search.

Although they found some drugs on the passenger,

the driver has nothing on him.

-Where's that cash from?

-My cash.

-Nothing else in here?

-No.

But a search of the car soon reveals what Mick is looking for.

-What is it? Pills?

-About 30 pills.

Beneath the driver's console there, there's about 30 tablets,

street-wrapped in a plastic wrap.

A further search of the car reveals more drugs.

White rock-like substance which is going to be...

-probably crack cocaine as well.

-And something else.

-Shouldn't have that, mate, should you?

-It's more of a novelty thing.

-You have to come down to the nick for that, mate.

-I bought it from Barkers!

Lock knife, mate.

He's got a lock knife, door pocket.

Shouldn't have that.

'The fact that it's in the driver's door pocket

'says so many other things.'

He's probably going to be right-handed,

he'll be able to reach down, produce it, use it,

should he need to, at a moment's notice.

To me, that just shows a level of intent.

If you had a lock knife in the boot, then, yeah, OK,

you've got a lock knife, you shouldn't have it,

but it's not readily available.

This guy had that knife there, in my opinion,

to use it to protect himself.

Boys, it gets worse, doesn't it?

It gets worse. You should not have that either.

So, to me, it started to paint a really, really worrying picture.

What began as a routine stop

is snowballing into a significant drugs bust.

It's a never-ending situation, but you can't just give up.

If you stop dealing with these people for drugs

and stop taking people off the streets and, you know,

and trying to get the different levels of criminality

off the streets, it would get overrun.

You know, you can't not stop doing it.

-What's all this, mate?

-It's from my mate's garden.

-It's from your mate's garden?!

-From his mate's cannabis garden.

Boys, at this moment in time, you're both under arrest

on possession with intent to supply controlled drugs, all right?

You're also both under arrest, you're still under caution,

for possession of an offensive weapon as well.

They'll be taken to the police station and booked in

but, primarily now, we need to get some searches done.

Now the cops have found drugs in the car,

they have the power to search the driver's home address.

As they organise a raid...

..15 miles away, on the A1, at the site of the jackknifed lorry,

officers Phil Stonebanks and Dave Robson are still fighting

to reopen the blocked lanes, and time is against them.

My mum always said if I didn't work hard at school,

I'd end up sweeping the streets. She was right.

The tailback caused by the accident is now stretching over 500 metres

towards a bend in the motorway.

Traffic was just starting to build up.

The early morning risers

were on their way to work or were just starting work.

It was starting to get busy with lorries and cars.

And it was quite obvious

that traffic was quickly going to start tailing back.

A lane has been kept open in each direction to keep traffic moving.

But there's still a long tailback.

We know there's going to be some backlog,

and you always think that you're trying to make it safe

so there isn't going to be another accident

and, with any accident, it could be from bumper to bumper,

up to the worst, a fatal, and you...

you never expect it, you never want to think about that happening.

As they wait for a recovery team to shift the HGV,

a call comes in over the radio.

It's just what the cops feared.

Bloody hell. Another bump just further down now.

9-0, is that another one down here somewhere?

There's been another accident between two articulated goods vehicles.

One's run into the back of the other one

and it's potentially quite serious.

-Did you get that?

-Yeah, it's looking bad. Down here?

-Yeah.

Yeah, the information is that this one on the northbound

is, er, confirmed fatality.

That's in the tailbacks, heading up to the first RTC,

so heading down there now to assist, just literally round the corner.

Bloody hell. What a mess.

When I got to the scene and saw the state of the lorry,

it was a pretty harrowing sight.

Tragically, the driver of the lorry hasn't survived.

The engine's smashed to pieces...

-and you can see that he's no way of surviving that.

-Bloody hell.

The gearbox had been smashed out, the prop shaft had been smashed out.

That's the most damage I've seen to a lorry

in my 17 years as a traffic officer, it was horrendous.

Jesus.

Yeah, it's obviously as bad as it gets, is this one.

You know, we've had one fairly minor incident up there

where the lorry's allegedly swerved to miss a deer.

As a result of that,

it's caused tailbacks round the corner round here.

There's a lorry here which has obviously had to stop.

This one obviously hasn't managed to stop in time.

And as you can see from the state of the cab,

there's no way the poor guy could have survived it.

You've just got to be professional, at the end of the day.

You've got to take your emotional head of, stick that on one side

and do the job that you're paid to do.

The families would expect that from you.

It's what everybody expects from you.

You've got to remain professional throughout

and do what you get paid to do.

Because there's been a fatality,

this will be now be treated as a crime scene.

The cause of death needs to be investigated,

and Dave takes detailed statements from witnesses.

The driver whose truck took the full force

of the HGV colliding with it from behind

is being treated for injuries to his neck and back.

You all right? Can I just get a few details before he goes?

What do you remember happening, Richard?

Right, OK, then. Like I say, someone'll come and speak to you

and just jot it down in writing later on.

Right. Thank you very much. Cheers.

We know on this time that matrixes were set to slow people down.

We don't know what has happened and the reason why.

But that should have slowed the traffic down.

The HGV hit the end of the tailback with such force,

it caused a domino effect, pushing three trucks into one another

and then finally shunting into a BMW.

While they investigate the accident, the traffic continues to build up,

and the knock-on effects from this will be felt for miles around.

That all became part of one big accident scene.

The scene was locked down for... I believe it was about 15 hours,

the A1 was closed, which obviously caused horrendous problems

for anyone who was wanting to use that road

or even the surrounding area.

The motorway cops will be on duty all night

to reduce the chaos caused by diverting thousands of vehicles

-to B roads surrounding the crash site.

-Come on.

Back in Bradford, Mick and Ross are still dealing with

the two men stopped with drugs in the car.

-You are proper in trouble, mate, yeah.

-What for?

For the knives and all of the drugs!

Well, you are in t'car, you are in t'frame.

There's drugs in your back pocket as well.

Well, we'll see what happens, later.

The cops have sent a search team

to raid the driver's property in Bradford city centre.

They'll be paying the minimal rent or get given it

and they just treat it like shit.

Hmm.

-"Quickly melts frost, snow and ice."

-That's what this is, same stuff.

"For steps, paths and driveways."

It is often mixed with cocaine to bulk out supplies

and increase profits.

He's got a mortar and pestle here so he's obviously got this

other agent, the doorstep defroster

and he's bashing that up and mixing it with something else

and passing that off.

That's all we can surmise at this stage.

Then they find the something else stuffed down the back of the sofa.

I bet that is coke and then he's bashing it in with that.

That is a fair bit of coke if it is.

In the bedroom, there are more drugs.

His set of digital scales

and what just may well be cocaine on the top of it there.

And there's a little knife there so he has possibly been cutting

that up and weighing it prior to bagging and selling.

Unfortunately drugs are everywhere.

I'm sure there is not one place in the UK where you can go

where if you needed an illegal drug, you couldn't

make a phone call and it would be with you in 10 minutes.

That is the level of the trade that members of the public really

are blissfully unaware.

And I'd like to keep it that way almost because

I wouldn't like to know the real horror and the real scale of

the level of drugs in our society because it is huge.

They also find equipment which can be used to grow cannabis.

Growing compound there.

Growing bins.

And you have got your large fan units here,

quite a few quid's worth, that's for sure.

These are your growing tents.

Silver foil.

Just ready to set up, it's quite a lot there

so it might have been quite a sizeable one.

That is a heavy-duty boy, is that.

This all here is ready and waiting to go somewhere.

With the evidence mounting up, the slow process of logging it begins.

-So what's going to be the first thing to put in here?

-Right...

Cannabis?

-Growth preparation equipment.

-TWG ones?

-Yes.

I think that's the best way.

PC Gillen updates the rest of the team

on the progress of their search.

We've found everything with regards to a cannabis farm

so we just want to take it and dispose of it somehow.

Numerous phones are also seized.

They'll be checked for evidence of customer telephone numbers

and incriminating texts.

Along with the phones, a car load of evidence is bagged

and the driver's drugs operation is shut down.

Out of the corner of your eye, you spot something

which leads you to a car,

which ultimately leads you to these two people

and at this point you can then deal with them positively,

you can bring them to justice, you can take them out of the equation,

they can be dealt with by the courts.

The scale of the find means

that Mick will be doing paperwork for the rest of his shift.

People will say it is a recreational drug.

I've seen how that goes and it's not pretty and it's not nice

and for me, everyone who I stop and deal with for drug supply

should be given hefty prison sentences,

should be given something,

some kind of incentive not to continue doing what they're doing

because ultimately they do destroy people's lives.

Near Pontefract, accident investigators are looking for

evidence to try and determine what caused the fatal crash on the A1.

The road remains closed while the central barrier is repaired

and diversions set up.

This morning PC Aidy Brown has received a call,

an HGV driver has had an accident

on one of the B-roads running close to the motorway.

I'm back with you now. Where's this bridge strike again, please?

'Hardwick Road, Hardwick Road. East Hardwick.'

It would appear that a goods vehicle has struck a bridge.

I suspect it's going to be over high.

Whenever we hear about we've got a motorway closure on,

it's just a case of, "We'll wait and see

"when the next bridge strike's going to happen,"

and we'll kind of guess where it's going to be.

It will always happen.

Normally if they are going quite slowly they just catch it

and they are normally still under it.

-How do?

-All right?

I have got recovery jacked up to come for the trailer

but we're going to need to sort something out

regarding the flow of traffic.

And there's a very shaky driver.

They're going to struggle to turn round, aren't they?

The wagons are but there's even a bus stuck as well.

You all right?

-Shaken.

-A bit of a shock?

-You're not hurt, though.

-Oh.

-Is cab all right?

-Aye, I think so.

-Where were you going to?

-Tuxford.

Only cut off here because the motorway was shut

-last night and I was virtually at my time.

-Oh, right.

-I parked in the first lay-by.

-Yeah, yeah.

Oh, mate!

'He's had an accident, he were really shaken up by that.

You could tell he's, you know, sorry for what he's done.

It was a bigger shock to him than it was to everybody else

that's involved, I think.

Although we do have a responsibility to investigate incidents

and deal with people if they've caused minor accidents or

committed an offence of due care and attention, anything like that,

you know, it's not my job to rub his nose in it really.

He wouldn't have caused that accident of crashing into that bridge

if the motorway had not have been closed.

I'll just go and have a look.

You've made the job of it, driver!

I mean, I wasnae going fast.

Have you got, like, a warning plate up for what you are?

Aye, it says in there 14' 8" but you'd normally get a thingummy

and, plus,

er, I was on the diversionary road. I know it's no' an excuse.

-Where's your height plate?

-Aye, there's just that card up there.

14' 9", yeah.

The plate in the cab gives the height of the lorry

for the driver to check against bridge heights.

I'm not a mathematician but that's about 3 inch too high.

-HE CHUCKLES

-You...

Aye, well.

That tiny, little mistake he's made there, believing he were

smaller than he was, um, it's caused absolute chaos and mayhem.

We've had to close an arterial route into a town

for several hours to get it all recovered and, you know,

all the damage that's been caused.

Thousands of pounds worth of damage to his trailer.

Well, we might as well try and get

some of this shifted, then, hadn't we?

HE CHUCKLES

Got to do us public-spirited bit.

But it's not just the roads that are affected.

A busy rail line between York and Sheffield has had to be closed.

An engineer is inspecting it for damage.

This one gets hit quite a bit, this one does, yeah.

Why's that?

Well, I have no idea because all t'signs are up

and they obviously know the size of the bridge, so they must

think, "Oh, well, a couple of inches is not going to matter,"

but, obviously, it does.

This metal plate, that's the track bed.

And if it gets a sustainable sidewards push,

it makes the track out of line.

Obviously you can't run trains.

But I've checked all the track and nothing's moved up there,

so obviously his lorry's three inch higher than what the bridge

permits to go under and...

..three inch has caused that.

I don't think, to be honest, he's actually, er...

..he's actually braked or even tried to stop before it,

get out and have a look and see whether he is or he isn't.

Oh, yeah, I mean, if you're going to have a go,

you're at least...you're going to be less than three inches, you know,

a centimetre or something or at least pull up,

get out and have a look at it visually so you can see yourself.

But, um, you know, that's it.

He's hit the bridge and he'll be dealt with accordingly for that.

The rail track can be reopened

despite what must have been a huge impact.

I don't think, a lot of the time, that they realise

just this tiny, little thing that they've made a mistake over

has caused such a big effect to everybody.

Traffic diverted to this road will face yet another diversion

until all the debris can be removed.

But at least here, no-one's been hurt.

On the A1 at the site of the fatal accident,

PC Phil Stonebanks is working to get the road reopened.

It's 8.20.

I think we've been here about four hours now.

With the A1 shut down,

the cops have to keep monitoring

the increased traffic on the B-roads.

Yeah, we've just got an update. We've got the helicopter up now.

It's daylight and they're just having a float round the area

just to see what the traffic situation is.

Here in the middle, at the actual scene itself, it's shut completely.

We're in a sterile area

but all the surrounding roads around Pontefract and heading

down towards Doncaster and suchlike, it's just absolute chaos now.

Because it's unclear why the deceased driver wasn't able to

stop in time, the wreckage of his truck is carefully recovered

and removed for examination.

We have a duty to investigate that accident

for the deceased driver and for his family. Just to find out

exactly what happened.

It could've been a mechanical fault on his vehicle.

His brakes might've failed. We don't know

until we've analysed it in the minutest detail,

just to find out exactly what did cause the accident.

Six miles away in a vehicle recovery yard near Wakefield,

Police Accident Investigator Keith Rayner sees the HGV wreckage

for the first time.

It's unfortunately typical of two HGVs being involved in accidents.

You've so much energy, you've so much weight, er, you only see

this when you've got multiple HGVs or commercial vehicles.

The HGV's tachograph records speed and distance.

It reveals the truck didn't slow down before impact.

His tachograph, at the moment, the download just shows basically

a constant speed in the region of 50mph.

Is it because he hasn't seen anybody slowing down,

and he hasn't slowed down, or because he couldn't slow down?

And that's the issue that we're trying to establish.

The answer may lie with the truck's braking systems.

Is there any way we can connect something up

to get something to work?

Er, if not, we have to look at the individual components,

activate them.

So we sort of start at one end and work back as far as we can.

ENGINE TURNING

So although we can't check every component on the vehicle

because of the damage, the components we have checked

haven't given us any indication that we've got anything wrong.

The truck's got multisystems to activate all the brakes.

It's unlikely that you're going to get a failure of every one

to cause a total, catastrophic failure.

They also inspect the truck's headlights to see

if they were on at the time of impact.

I don't know if... Can you see that? This...

If you look at the distortion of the filament,

it's stopped so quickly

that even the filament wants to carry on going.

And being, in effect, white-hot...

it just continues.

So that's a definite indication...

or a good indication the headlamp was on at the time of impact.

To find out if the brake lights were on too,

Keith is looking for the same kind of filament distortion.

Nothing, is there?

Like that headlamp one that we looked at,

if the filament's distorted,

it would suggest that it's been hot when it was distorted.

But none of these are distorted.

The evidence is inconclusive

but points towards human error.

At the moment, there's nothing standing out with this to me

that would cause me a concern.

If you haven't got owt wrong with the road,

or owt wrong with the vehicle,

you are down to the operator of the vehicle. Why didn't he brake?

Nobody really wants to accept that somebody has made a mistake...

..that ends up with such tragic consequences.

All the facts that Keith gathers from the examination

will go in the report to the coroner,

who will determine exactly what caused the accident.

You always have thoughts about the person that's died.

You wonder who they are, what they were doing.

Have they got any family? Have they got any kids?

Er, you know, you always think about things like that.

And you're thinking, "That guy turned in for work this morning,

"got in his lorry, set off to do the job, or do the route

"he's probably done 300 to 400 times for maybe 5, 10, 20 years."

You always think about them,

the number of people that's been affected by

someone losing their life in such tragic circumstances.

At the inquest, the coroner recorded a verdict of accidental death

but found the evidence available could not explain why

the driver did not slow down or change direction.

Police tried to identify the driver of the silver Corsa

pursued by PCs Mick Roffe and Rob Jones in Bradford,

but all leads have so far proved inconclusive.

The young man who crashed his car into a lamppost pleaded

guilty to driving without due care and attention.

He was fined £100 and given three penalty points on his licence.

The driver of the black Volkswagen Golf

stopped in Bradford by PCs Mick Roffe and Ross Masters

pleaded guilty to possession of class A drugs with intent

to supply and possession of an offensive weapon.

He received a 33-month prison sentence.

The drugs found at the house were confirmed as cocaine,

and valued at over £5,500.

The passenger was not dealing

but pleaded guilty to possession of cocaine and was fined £250.

And the lorry driver who crashed his HGV into the bridge,

was found guilty of driving without due care and attention.

He was fined £170 and received four points on his licence.