Episode 6 A1: Britain's Longest Road

The A1, Britain's longest road.

Stretching almost 400 miles from the city of London to the heart

of the Scottish capital.

Connecting two nations and passing through 18 counties,

it's an unrivalled highway,

used by hundreds of thousands of vehicles every day.

We're going southbound down the A1 on the northbound carriageway.

But not all journeys go to plan.

I thought, I'm going to lose my life.

Cars are coming close. It is a dangerous place to be.

Lives can hang in the balance.

The rear end of that vehicle, it's unrecognisable.

This is actually the bodywork of the car.

-24 hours a day...

-It's not a safe place here.

..there's a team of people who keep us safe from harm.

The police...

response teams...

We don't know whether we've got the road closed. We don't know what's happened.

..and traffic officers...

Keep going.

-..keeping Britain's most iconic road...

-Get out!

..on the move.

Substantially damaged flatbed truck in lane two.

The A1, the monster that it is, will start to return to normal.

Coming up, a horrific crash,

-with devastating consequences.

-You get one chance at life.

And it's a really, really precious thing.

The race to rescue drivers... HE WHISTLES

..caught in a four car collision.

One three. All vehicles cleared of the lane two now.

And the lorries putting lives at risk.

This is a fuel tank.

The cap's missing and somebody's just put a plastic bag in.

From the heart of London,

the A1 stretches nearly 400 miles north,

through rural Hertfordshire and Cambridgeshire, past the industrial

heartlands of Leeds and Newcastle,

before finally ending in the city of Edinburgh.

On the section just north of Newcastle,

evening rush hour traffic is starting to build.

A1 patrol officer PC Alan Keenleyside

has stopped to investigate a heavy goods vehicle with Spanish plates.

It's pulled over on the side of the road and is causing

a dangerous obstruction.

-HORN BLARES

-What's wrong?

-No, no. Two minutes.

I go.

This is not a place to stop.

-No, I go.

-Now.

-Yes.

-OK.

-OK.

-Let me see your chart.

The driver's tachograph reveals that she's reached the maximum

number of driving hours allowed before taking a break.

You've been driving all day.

You should have stopped one, two miles up the road.

But as Alan advises the driver about her rest break,

another HGV pulls up.

And the driver's eager to talk to Alan.

All right, boss. No worries. Cheers, buddy. Thank you.

And another driver has also seen the accident.

Whereabouts?

A pile up in rush hour traffic is serious.

POLICE SIREN

Alan needs to get there quickly.

To be perfectly honest,

it's now quarter past five on a Monday afternoon.

Couldn't happen at a worse time.

Multi-car crashes often result in casualties,

but Alan's hoping for the best.

The ideal scenario is when we get here is nobody's seriously injured,

the vehicles aren't particularly badly damaged,

we can get everything moved.

The level of injury at the scene isn't confirmed at the minute.

But ambulances have been asked for.

It's these people going about their business,

probably coming home from work,

to see their families and their loved ones,

and all of a sudden, they've left work,

they don't think they're going to be involved in something big like this.

There's a car in a tree, down the ditch.

This is really, really key in people's lives.

These are life-changing events.

When Alan arrives at the scene,

it's clear that he's dealing with a major accident.

We've got a car over there with some serious damage.

Got a Land Rover here.

And two vehicles, three vehicles here, so quite a sizeable scene.

With several injured motorists,

vehicles and debris everywhere, and rush hour traffic thundering

past, this job will push Alan to the limit.

This is just one of more than 320 serious accidents that happen

on the A1 every year.

And it's the job of traffic officers,

as well as the police, to deal with them.

In Doncaster, two are about to head out on the early shift.

It's 6:30am and Paul Day and Rob Larkin will be patrolling one

of the busiest sections of the road.

Turn them all on. All off.

Yeah.

And it's not long before they have a major collision to deal with.

-RADIO:

-'Just hearing about a few problems on the A1.

'Looks like we could have accident involving at least

'a couple of vehicles on the southbound side,

'it's now slowing to queue there, so looks like we could have a problem.'

What we've got reports of is a multi-vehicle crash,

so we're heading south to attend it.

Four cars have piled into each other and, with rush hour traffic

hurtling towards them at 70mph,

Paul and Rob know the stranded road users are in danger.

We'll stop traffic, we'll see if anybody's injured,

make sure everybody's OK.

We try and get everything back to normal as quickly as possible,

-but as safely as possible as well.

-There you go.

Is it there?

Yeah, lane two's blocked.

Even though the accident has only just happened,

traffic is already starting to build.

One three, lane two's currently blocked. At the location given.

Paul and Rob need to get back down the other carriageway quickly,

but the northbound section is also virtually at standstill.

Look at that traffic.

Fortunately, help is at hand. SIREN

That should make it a little bit easier for us.

What's good here is police attending gives forward traffic

a way of moving out of the way.

Cos they've got blue lights and sirens.

-Within a few minutes, Rob and Paul are on the scene.

-We're here now.

You want to stop everybody from that blue wagon?

The damaged vehicles are blocking a whole lane.

And the drivers are stood perilously in the middle of the road.

HE WHISTLES With traffic still flowing past,

they're in serious danger of being knocked down.

I've got traffic stopped with code six. Police on scene.

Having removed the vehicles safely from the carriageway...

One three, all vehicles cleared of the lane two now.

..Paul and Rob can reopen one of the lanes.

A lane one close is better than a lane two.

So that's what we've done, is put a lane one out.

Now he needs to make sure the drivers are OK.

-How are you?

-Shaking like a leaf, to be honest.

Are you? You're all right. Can you tell us what happened?

Right, so, big queue of cars in front of me.

They all sort of suddenly stopped. I've managed to stop.

But then just felt this car come straight into the back of me.

Um, and then, it was almost instant, bang, bang, bang.

Everything happened all at once.

-I felt it.

-Did you?

-Yeah.

Shaking a bit. Are you all right? Are you warm enough?

-I'm all right, yeah.

-You sure? Got a coat in your car?

-I'm fine, honest.

-Sure?

Even with just one lane closed,

the usual A1 traffic flow is halved and tailbacks are building fast.

It's vital that Rob and Paul get the drivers and their damaged

vehicles safely off the hard shoulder and open the whole

carriageway as quickly as possible.

I bet this is going back at least ten mile, this traffic.

This could take all day to clear.

The pressure is on.

Can Paul and Rob get traffic moving before the repercussions

reverberate for hours to come?

For most people, a traffic jam simply means frustration.

But in Warwickshire, a 200 mile journey is about to begin,

where delays on the Great North Road will really mean someone

getting the hump.

Very curious animals.

They like to know what's happening, what's going on.

But that's a good thing really.

You can always tell if an animal's happy, that they're curious,

they want to see and look around.

The Fossett family have eight camels.

And tonight, three of their finest are the star attraction in Durham

City's Nativity, giving the Three Kings a ride to see Baby Jesus.

Right, hang on. Hang on.

They'll just go straight to the food and then I'll tie them up

once they're there.

No, no, no. You've got one each. Go on.

This is Kazak. Kazak's going today and also, we're taking Max.

This is a young camel, Max.

And Kokoso, you can't miss Kokoso.

You're the best camel in the world, aren't you, Kokoso? Yes!

But how do you persuade a camel to take a journey along the A1 highway?

Max! Maxy!

Maxy, come on!

Max, don't disappear. There's a good boy.

Max! Max!

Where are you off to?

You've got to be very patient with camels and very careful.

It's no good trying to bully a camel,

you've got to coax it into doing it.

Come on.

Good boy. Here you are.

Look.

Here you are.

It's like people, isn't it? And children, you know?

How you train your children

is how they behave, isn't it?

Kokoso, don't be barging!

Back up, back up, back up.

After travelling across the country, they'll face

a 100 mile trip up the A1, so it could be a long and bumpy ride.

Born into a circus family, Joseph spent a lifetime on the road,

with all manner of weird and wonderful beasts.

I've transported horses, elephants, I've transported lions down the A1.

All sorts of different animals at different times.

The rewards of being with the camels,

because that's such a privilege, is so amazing. I mean, it's hard work.

-Don't get me wrong.

-And no day's ever the same.

Yeah, it's not for the faint-hearted.

With hundreds of spectators expected, and the camels the

Nativity's star attraction, the Fossetts can't afford to be late.

We allow a certain amount of time with a bit of wriggle room to

get to where we're going but, you know, we have to be there on time.

You can't kind of let the situation dominate you, if you like.

So, I mean, the Highways is on speed dial on my phone.

And they're only halfway to Durham when Rebecca spots trouble ahead.

Oh, dear. That is not good. That's not good. Where's my phone?

Time to get on to Highways England.

Oh, hello. We're on the A1M, going north.

We're just by Ferrybridge Services and we've seen a slow down incident.

Can you tell us what's going on?

With trouble looming ahead, and nearly 100 miles to go,

Joseph and Rebecca may need their own Christmas miracle to make

it to the Nativity on time.

Whatever the cargo,

hold-ups are a frustrating part of life on the motorway.

While roadworks and congestion account for the majority of

delays, accidents are the main cause of jams.

Nearly 120 miles north of the Fossetts on the A1, near

Gosforth in Newcastle, the rush hour has been brought to a standstill.

A1 patrol officer PC Alan Keenleyside is still dealing

with a multiple crash in the fast lane.

-So, he's coming at speed. He's hit that one.

-Yeah.

-Which has then connected with either that one or that one.

-That one.

His priority is to get the injured driver seen to,

now that the ambulance has arrived.

The paramedics are seeing to the driver of the vehicle that's

taken the biggest hit of them all really.

I think the driver is going to be suffering typically of

whiplash-type injuries.

So we're going to put a neck collar on him and I imagine that

driver will be going off to hospital to be properly looked at.

The rear end of that vehicle, it's unrecognisable.

The lady driving the Land Rover has been fortunate to have

escaped unhurt.

Yeah.

But she witnessed the whole thing.

Footage taken from her dashcam captured the terrifying

moment of impact...

..when congestion turned into a multicar collision.

I was driving along, traffic was slowing down,

I'm slowing down with the traffic. And then, it was a silver car,

and then it smashed into the front of me.

And then, next thing, that car ended up in the ditch.

It was as if something off like a Hollywood film.

Just chuck a car into the mix.

The positive thing is I'm walking away, I'm OK.

It's a car. I can replace the car.

My baby wasn't in the car, luckily.

Or that could have been very bad for my little boy.

-With the injured drivers receiving treatment...

-Come on, come on. OK.

..the officers now need to get

the road reopened as quickly as possible.

We've got a clear front end impact

with what we call vehicle number one.

Cos that's the vehicle that we're looking at as potentially

being responsible. But over there, we've got vehicle number two,

which has taken a heavy impact.

OK, would you like to follow over?

Although police are trying to keep traffic moving,

there's still dangerous wreckage strewn across the road.

If we leave a bit of debris,

a motorbike or car could see that debris,

especially at night-time with the headlights, and they could actually

swerve to avoid that debris, which could result in another collision.

So we need to make sure when we clean the road that it's

-cleaned properly.

-But there's another problem.

The crashed vehicles have also spilled fluid all over the

-northbound carriageway.

-It's mainly water,

but there's a little bit of engine oil in it as well.

It means that Alan has to hold up the whole of the southbound

section, so that absorbent material can quickly be laid on the road.

It'll only take about two or three minutes,

so we need to get that absorbed to make the carriageway safe, so

things like motorbikes don't slide on the road, that type of thing.

The only thing left to do is to safely remove the wrecked

vehicles from the side of the road.

What you see on the back of the car there, that's all energy.

That's probably 60 to 70mph's worth of energy.

Now, Alan is able to review the footage from the dashcam

for the first time.

Wow!

That Micra's taken a really sizeable collision there. Big collision.

The roads are a cruel place.

We hear stories from all over the country of a family in

a car doing nothing wrong, sitting in traffic, and all of a sudden,

there's children and adults tragically killed in a split second.

And when you see things like this, it does hit it home. It really does.

Because you get one chance at life and it's a really,

really precious thing.

Everyone is safe for now in Gosforth.

But nearly 120 miles south,

back at the multicar pile up in Doncaster, it's a different story.

HE WHISTLES

Traffic officers Paul Day and Rob Larkin are still battling to

keep stranded motorists out of harm's way.

Vehicles cleared of the lane two now.

Having closed both lanes whilst damaged vehicles were removed

from the carriageway,

they've now reopened one of them to ease the traffic.

Around 50 people are killed or seriously injured on Britain's

hard shoulders ever year, so Paul's priority is the drivers' safety.

What we do now is keep an eye on people because of the

tendency to wander about without a view for any safety.

So that's what I'm doing at the minute is keeping an eye on

people who are in cars.

We don't want anybody getting further injured.

Like, there's a bloke I'm going to move now cos he's stood

outside of that car.

-Mate!

-HE WHISTLES

The danger is somebody not seeing this lane closure and coming

in to him.

They'd just take him out. He's just not looking behind him at anything.

To ensure everyone's safe,

Paul needs to get the drivers and their vehicles off the carriageway.

Watch yourselves, boys!

But only two of the cars are roadworthy.

The others will have to be recovered.

That'll just save it coming off in the road then.

Instead of leaving these two vehicles here,

what we're planning to do is get the police to escort the Fiesta

off to the next exit, so he can get recovered from there.

With the white Fiesta safely chaperoned off,

there's just the grey BMW left to shift.

But it won't start.

There's nothing there.

So Rob and Paul will have to push it off the road.

Right, we're going down this hard shoulder and the first little

yard, we're going in there, all right?

But weighing in at around 1.5 tonnes, this isn't going to be easy.

It's a German BMW, great engineering,

they make them out of solid steel. It's really, really hard to push.

I hope he's had his porridge this morning.

No need for a workout today. Luckily, the car is facing downhill.

That's better. I've got grip.

Job's a good 'un.

Minutes later, a recovery truck arrives to pick up the grey BMW.

Finally, Rob and Paul can now start to get both lanes fully reopened.

Everybody's cleared the live lane, so we can open this lane.

We're trying to get it open as quick as we can.

It's taken nearly an hour and a half to clear the smash and the

effects on this two-lane stretch will be long lasting.

If it was normal motorway,

it'd clear a lot quicker cos you've got three lanes.

It can handle more volume.

But with it being two lanes, it'll take forever.

It can have knock-on effects all the way down.

-That can be pretty much everyday job, can't it, on here?

-Oh, yeah.

Every day, every shift.

It's because of the amount of traffic that uses this road.

-And people drive too close to each other.

-Too close, too fast.

Thankfully, this incident has ended without anyone getting hurt.

The A1 is one of Britain's key routes for lorries

transporting cargo.

More than 20 miles north, near Wetherby, an operation is under

way to identify HGVs that present a danger to other road users.

Lorries are responsible for one in five deaths or injuries in

accidents on the A1 each year.

So the stakes are high.

Faults like dodgy brakes or worn tyres on any vehicle are

a hazard, but on a 40-tonne truck, the results can be terrifying.

Parked up on the A1 is senior traffic inspector Paul Berryman.

Victor two in position. Northbound.

It's his job to spot suspect trucks.

It's hard to actually tell you what I'm looking for.

It's something that you...

It's an instinct you get over a period of time.

It's something just doesn't look right on the road.

If it looks a little heavy, if it's not being driven right.

And it's not long before Paul sees something that warrants

a closer look.

I'm just going to get that tanker there. That Belgian tanker.

Paul needs to overtake the lorry so he can signal him to pull over.

So I'll just get in front of him.

But he knows we want him now cos he's slowing right down.

The other thing I've got to watch is as I pull off the motorway,

if he doesn't feel like following me, he'll just continue straight on

up, which is an offence, of course, and he can be prosecuted for that.

And Paul leads him to a weighbridge site, just off the motorway, where

the team from the Driver And Vehicle Standards Agency are running

today's operation.

Hiya.

How are you?

I'm just giving it a quick look round,

recording the registration number.

Just make sure he's got all his necessary markings and

there's nothing hanging off.

With 30,000 litres of Belgian chocolate on board,

the driver's heading for York. For now though,

he'll be the one taking a break while Paul checks his paperwork.

Meanwhile, another lorry that was brought in earlier is getting

its mechanical once over.

And it doesn't take examiner Steve White long to find

a serious problem.

Right.

This is a fuel tank but obviously the cap's missing.

Somebody's just put a plastic bag in.

Obviously, that's going to result in immediate prohibition,

so the vehicle can't be going any further with that defect on it

until it's been rectified.

With only a plastic bag stopping hundreds of litres of fuel

from spilling all over the A1, it could be lethal.

Even the smallest patch of diesel can be dangerous to motorists.

So, until it's fixed,

Romanian driver Sorin and his truck full of clothing

won't be going anywhere.

You need to phone your boss and get him to send a fuel cap.

While Sorin makes his call, Steve moves on to the Belgian chocolate

tanker and spots a fault with one of the tyres.

I'll just show you this defect.

-You've got some damage on a tyre.

-Yeah?

It's not down to the wires or structure,

so at this moment in time, it's just advisory.

You just need to keep an eye on it, that's all.

With advice given and his paperwork all in order,

the driver and his delicious haul are on their way.

But things aren't quite so sweet for driver Sorin.

That'll be about 15 miles away.

About 20 miles... 15/20 miles away.

How are you going to get there? Taxi?

Taxi?

Sorin's day isn't getting any better.

First came the fixed penalty fine and now he's facing

a 30 mile round trip in a taxi to try and get a fuel cap.

Will he ever get back on the road?

On the A1 northbound near Pontefract,

Joseph and Rebecca Fossett are still en route to Durham

with their exotic load.

Tonight, their camels are carrying the Three Kings in the city's

Christmas Nativity.

I mean, at the moment the traffic's going but there's been two

signs saying "Incident, slow down, 50."

But with nearly 100 miles still to go,

a potential hold up ahead could be disastrous.

Junction 62 is clear.

It is. OK. That's brilliant.

Thank you very much. And you. Thanks. Bye.

Despite the warning signs, traffic keeps moving.

And after three hours, the Fossetts decide to take a break.

-Hello!

-Hello, my babies.

In the desert, camels can go days without water...

Back up, poppet.

..but on the car park of some local services...

In you go. Back up, back up.

..Kazak, Max and Kokoso look grateful for some refreshments.

-Look at the way Kazak just...

-SHE MIMICS MUNCHING

He just takes the most enormous mouthful.

Look at you, it's all falling out your mouth, you greedy thing!

And this little taste of Arabia is certainly causing

a stir at this Yorkshire service station.

You get some strange looks, yes, with members of the public

But we have to be careful.

I like to keep it closed up as much as possible because otherwise we

get crowds of people round wanting to take photographs.

We always get the same joke -

which one's called Humphrey?

So before anyone gets the hump...

Hey, hey! Don't do that. That's not nice.

..it's time to get these camels back on the road.

Thankfully, the A1 gods are on their side and the road ahead looks clear.

The Fossetts are hoping red sky at night is less shepherd,

more camel's delight.

Meanwhile in Durham,

the crowds are building as the city prepares

for the annual Nativity parade.

With the Star of David to guide them,

all's in place for the camels' shining role.

So will they make it to the inn on time?

With less than an hour to spare,

it looks like the crowd's prayers have been answered.

Come on, then, Kazak.

With the three camels delivered safely...

..the rush is on to make them fit for their kings.

We've got 45 minutes to get these camels fed, watered, tacked up.

45 minutes isn't very long, so that's what we're doing now.

But the festive period isn't just the busiest time of year

for camels.

In December, our road networks creak under the pressure

of millions of us rushing to get our Christmas shopping done.

And just outside the retail mecca of Newcastle,

A1 patrol officer PC Darren Lant is using the latest

technology to track cars driving illegally on the road.

So we've pulled up, and we're letting the automatic number plate

recognition system camera that's fitted to the car

just read the registration numbers of passing vehicles

and that'll alert us to anything that we need to know of -

stolen cars, uninsured cars.

Driving without insurance is one of the most common offences

Darren deals with.

Not only do these drivers force up premiums for us all,

but it can be a nightmare getting compensation if you're

unlucky enough to be in an accident with an uninsured vehicle.

And here on the A1,

it's never long before Darren gets an alert about a suspect car.

The ANPR camera that reads all the numberplates and lets us know

if there's anything of note - and it's activated telling

me this car in front has no insurance details.

Darren follows the car until it's safe to pull the driver over

into a car park.

Hello, there. How are you doing? Is this your car, is it?

How long have you had it?

-When did we get it? October.

-October.

Can I see your insurance documents, please?

Can you see if the black folder's in there?

-No, babe.

-I had to change a bulb and I took it out.

-All right, OK. No problem.

-I've got my licence...

OK, no problem. Switch your car off and come and have a chat with

me for two seconds and I'll explain to you why I've stopped you.

Take a seat in the back on that side.

The reason why I've stopped you is this car's showing as having

no insurance held for it. There's no insurance on the details.

You haven't missed any of the payments or anything, have you?

-Not that I know of.

-Not that you know of.

-I haven't...

-To be fair, I haven't checked but...

-Right.

You haven't had any letters or anything from them saying

it's been cancelled? OK, no problem.

We'll give them a ring and find out what the craic is.

But after a quick check on the police national computer,

Darren has some bad news to deliver.

I'm going to have to caution you. You don't have to say anything but it may harm your defence

if you don't mention when questioned something which you later rely on in court.

Anything you do say may be given in evidence. You're not under arrest, it's just something I've got to

say to you when I suspect an offence has been committed.

-The offence that I suspect has been committed is driving with no insurance.

-Right.

The offence itself carries a fixed penalty of £300.

But what's worse for the motorist is that Darren cannot allow her

to continue to drive.

-The car will be taken from you now. OK?

-Right.

We'll arrange recovery for the car.

And she'll have to pay £150 release fee on top of the fine.

Not what you want two days before Christmas, eh?

To make matters worse, the car is full of Christmas presents.

They said that they didn't receive my...

proof of no claims, which was from when I was driving my mam's car

and I was insured on that.

But they were all uploaded.

But I'd probably have to find the e-mail that I sent, I would think.

It means that my Christmas shopping is not going to plan,

because I won't have as much money.

I'll live.

There's nothing I can do about it.

Soon a flatbed truck arrives to pick up the car,

leaving the driver and her passenger to wait by the roadside for a lift.

If it gets too cold or it starts getting too late,

please go to the waiting room. Just wait in there, all right?

-I'm going to sit in Greggs.

-Excellent.

-A great place to sort out your insurance, Greggs.

-Aye!

Get a nice festive bake and a Belgian bun,

they're the best ones. All right. Watch where you're going. Ta-ra.

We're not ogres and I know certain traffic cops

get bad reputations and we're here just to pick on

the innocent motorists and all that sort of stuff.

But, no, insurance offences costs people a lot of money.

And it's a bit of a sickener when you open a car

when it's full of Christmas presents,

especially when they're kids' Christmas presents,

but it's unfortunate.

There are over 1 million uninsured drivers in Britain,

so while Darren hates spoiling anyone's Christmas,

he knows stopping as many offenders as possible

is good for all other motorists.

More than 80 miles away near Wetherby,

some other A1 road users are also falling foul of the law.

The team from the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency

is continuing their operation to stop and check lorries

to ensure they're roadworthy.

Earlier, this wagon was found to have a serious fault

by enforcement vehicle examiner Steve White.

The fuel cap is missing and a plastic bag is the only thing

stopping a lethal spill.

Driver Sorin has gone to find a replacement cap,

but with no sign of his return, Steve has to take action.

We're going to immobilise the vehicle now.

He's had an hour from issuing the probation notice.

Obviously, the vehicle's still got the defect on,

so it gets immobilised.

And with the front wheel locked, this lorry really is going nowhere.

Fellow Inspector Paul Berryman is back on the A1 and pulling in

another truck for inspection.

Hello, we're just going to do a quick control. Is that OK?

Steve checks the truck for mechanical faults and gives

it the all clear.

But Paul is suspicious about the tachograph

which records the driver's hours, speed and distance.

Well, the indication is that there's some sort of interference

but it's not solid enough to give any, sort of, evidence or proof.

We would need a bit more to go on.

The truck has done over 1 million kilometres,

so Paul would expect to see about 50 small mechanical faults

recorded in that time.

Things like a flat battery, but there's nothing.

That's the first time I've ever come across a printout like that

with no faults on in ten years.

I've never seen a printout with no faults on, ever.

Not even on trucks that are weeks olds.

There's always faults.

But this just hasn't any faults whatsoever.

So either it has been very, very lucky

and never had a fault or it's never recorded a fault

or it's been manipulated some way and the faults have been erased.

Paul suspects a magnet may have been used to tamper with the

tachograph but the inspectors can't find one.

So with no physical evidence, all Paul can do is ask the driver.

I guarantee you he's going to say no.

Have you been using a magnet?

A magnet? Switch?

-Switch? Zapper?

-No.

-No?

Are you sure?

-Are you sure?

-Yeah, yeah.

-100%?

-No.

No magnet? Really?

OK. It just seems too clean.

Reluctantly, Paul has to let the lorry go.

And Romanian driver Sorin is back with a new fuel cap.

Yeah, that's fine. The gentleman's paid his fee for the immobilisation.

He's also paid his fixed penalty fee for the defect.

Once we remove this, the gentleman is on his way.

-OK.

-OK. Thank you.

It's been a successful day for the team.

They've pulled over 11 vehicles, identified four dangerous faults

and insured these drivers are safe to keep on trucking.

70 miles away in the historic city of Durham,

the Fossetts and their camels have arrived

for the Christmas Nativity procession.

After a long journey north, Rebecca and Joseph have just

45 minutes to transform Kazak, Max and Kokoso for the big moment.

See, we have bells.

We like to make them look...

You know, they look the business, don't they?

This is what makes it more than just camels,

it's glamour camels, I suppose.

It's about having a spectacle.

With the crowds gathering outside, the freshly adorned camels

are ready just in time for the arrival

of their masters of the night.

Kings! Very good!

But are these royal riders up to the job?

Oh, I think when I was a child I may have gone on a camel at Bristol Zoo.

And not really since then!

Fortunately, Rebecca has some helpful advice on how to

mount these six-foot beasts.

Leg up behind, left leg, OK?

And then one, two...

OK, bounce, one, two, three and on the third one Brian will... Voomph!

One, two, three...

Slightly more tricky than it sounds.

There's nothing regal about the mount.

One, two, three. Up you go.

Leg up now.

Two, three.

Well done.

The Kings may have once come from the east...

..but tonight, it's the less exotic confines

of Durham's multistorey car park.

-But no matter.

-Stand back, please!

As they wind their way through the city's shopping thoroughfare...

..they present a pretty arresting sight.

He snorted down my neck. He blew his nose, basically.

Their behaviour might not always be majestic...

..but their arrival is eagerly awaited by the exuberant crowds.

Really enthusiastic. I mean, a lot of very excited children around.

I've never seen a camel in my life!

I've never seen camels walking through

the streets of Durham before.

It was quite a nice surprise, but odd in the marketplace!

Once at the inn, the camels safely deposit their load

to deliver offerings of gold, frankincense and myrrh.

And Kazak, Max and Kokoso are free to retire.

You silly Billy.

You silly Billy.

Their starring role over for another year, it's back to the lorry

for these Three Kings and a well earned rest.

Oh, I think they'll sleep very well this evening.

They'll be snoozing on the way back.

There's just time for a brief show of appreciation...

Eww, that's not very nice, is it?

..before they join the A1 southbound

for their long journey home.

Everyone involved in the multicar smash made a full recovery.

The driver of the white van is being investigated for careless driving.

And lorry driver Sorin made one last trip back to the DVSA...

He set off and he forgot his documents.

-..before getting back on the road...

-OK!

..and completing his A1 journey.

Next time, the careless drivers putting lives at risk...

The worst-case scenario is that it's a fatality.

..officers race to the scene...

This is high priority.

..of a treacherous tyre blowout...

Traffic's just too busy.

The chances of somebody getting struck on that offside

is really high.

..and Santa's reindeer head south.

You often get this expression of pure delight when people see

the reindeer for the first time.

They really are the spirit of Christmas.