Episode 8 Close Calls: On Camera

A close call, a moment of danger when life can hang in the balance.

What would happen if I wasn't found or didn't find a way out of it?

A split second where the outcome could go either way.

It's a choice. Life or death.

The difference between disaster and survival.

We saw a lady who was critically ill, if not dying, in front of us.

I kept thinking the hotel was going to fall on us.

These are the people that have been there and lived to tell the tale.

It's a day they'll never forget.

The day they had a close call.

Today on Close Call...

Workers on a building site dig up more than they bargained for.

It was clear, it seemed, for us, looks like a old bomb.

3,000 lives are in danger if it goes off.

But it's two boys from the bomb squad who faced the biggest risk...

We don't wear the bomb suit on jobs like this.

It's designed to take down buildings.

You in a suit isn't going to help at all.

..and a driver's dash cam captures the heart-stopping moment

another car hurtles towards him.

It's horrifying.

I was expecting to see, if not dead,

a seriously injured person in the car.

Also today...

She doesn't know where she is or what's happened to her.

But Sarah knows she needs help.

Bermondsey, south London.

A busy day on a building site becomes a life-threatening

situation when workers make a deadly discovery.

This looks like a old bomb.

A digger at the new development has scooped up an unexploded device left

over from World War II.

It's live and could go off at any moment.

Thousands of people's lives are at risk.

All the police were everywhere.

I was shocked, you know.

Frightened, really, in case it went off.

It's up to two Army bomb disposal experts to diffuse more than 100

kilograms of highly unstable explosive.

The London Borough of Bermondsey is a thriving metropolitan area,

with the recently developed City Hall the jewel in its crown.

But just 70 years ago, the area was a very different place.

Devastated by Nazi bombing raids during the Second World War.

84-year-old Mary Chrisfield moved here not long after,

and remembers how it looked then.

There was lots of holes in the ground and they had to be built up.

Straight away I loved Bermondsey.

It is something about the people and the people I met.

There was a good community spirit.

And that spirit of 70 years ago is about to be tested again.

It's a bright spring morning and site demolition manager,

Jacob Novak, is working on a building project in the heart

of the London Borough.

The 34-year-old father-of-one is an experienced contractor.

I've been working in the demolition industry over ten years.

Before, I was serving three years in the Polish military.

His team had demolished most of the old buildings on the site and are

digging the foundations for the new development.

Jacob is directly overseeing the work.

It requires some serious machinery.

The machine that we was using on that particular day,

that was 30 tonne excavator.

The dig is progressing well.

But then the driver of the excavator hits something metallic.

He gets out of his machine to see what it is.

He found, it looks like hot water copper tank in a...

What we was using in domestic houses which was long with a pointy end.

Looked a bit rusty.

Jacob's experience in the Polish army leads him to suspect he knows

exactly what the digger has hit.

And it's not a water tank.

Me and my colleague, Jason, who is helping me in site on that day,

we went and have a look.

It was clear, it seemed for us, looks like a old bomb.

He's right. Jacob and his workmates are staring at an unexploded

German bomb from the Second World War

which has just been struck by a 30 tonne digger.

It's unstable and could go off at any minute.

What's more, the building site is right next to three large blocks of

flats and a primary school.

I panicked a bit when we uncovered it,

but my training kicked off and I called emergency services,

shut everything down.

Jacob clears the workforce from the site.

My concern was the safety for our guys working on site,

to get them out of the site, quick as we can.

First to respond to Jacob's call are the police.

They call in the Army.

Staff Sergeant Richard McKinnon of The Bomb Squad arrives

and is briefed on the discovery by Jacob and his team.

The guy himself he did, in his nervous way,

tell us how he hit it with the excavator.

So there was a fair bit of fear from that point onwards.

The Bomb Squad experts get to work and Staff Sergeant Ed Clinton

quickly identifies the ordinance.

It was a German World War II bomb. An SE Sprengbombe Cylindrisch 250.

250 relating to the weight of it, 250kg.

50% of the quarter tonne bomb is made up of explosives.

If it goes off, it will be like 1,000 hand grenades all exploding

at the same time.

Initial thoughts on the size of the bomb and where it was,

we'll have to look at some form of mitigation and evacuation as early

-as possible.

-And for such a large-scale item,

you have to have an enormous cordon.

It involves evacuating thousands of people.

The sense of urgency was paramount throughout the task.

Police and fire officers begin the time-consuming job

of clearing homes, businesses and roads.

These photographs, taken by a member of the public, show the beginning of

the evacuation of more than 3,000 people.

Long-time resident, Mary, is one of them.

All the police were everywhere.

I was shocked, you know.

Well, frightened, really, in case it went off before.

It takes some hours to move householders to safety

more than a mile away.

Many are taken to a local leisure centre.

A large area of south-east London is shut down.

Bomb disposal experts Ed and Richard can now begin the dangerous job of

diffusing the unpredictable 70-year-old bomb.

But first they need to clear the earth around the device so they can

examine it fully.

It's not an easy task.

Any serious jolt could set it off.

As you can imagine when it's been in the ground for 70 plus years,

it can be encased in concrete, soil, very compact.

So, whilst you need to remove some of this to actually look at what

you're dealing with, you've got to be mindful that you are also dealing

with an unexploded bomb. So you have to be very tentative when you're

actually trying to excavate to find where the fuses are.

But before they can begin working on the bomb's innards,

the bomb disposal team need to limit the potential damage should

something go wrong and the bomb explodes.

So, we called in a large support team.

They build an igloo around the item.

The huge igloo structure, made of canvas and metal mesh,

is filled with sand and supported by a scaffolding frame

which covers the bomb.

So the idea is every time we do a function or an action on the bomb,

the whole item is concealed in this igloo.

It's designed to protect the surrounding area.

But nothing can protect Richard and Ed if something goes wrong.

As they climb under the structure to get hands-on with the device,

they are dressed in just their uniforms with no protective gear.

We don't wear the bomb suit on jobs like this.

Something of this scale, it doesn't matter what you're wearing,

it's designed to take down buildings.

You in a suit isn't going to help at all.

Both men's lives are at risk as they begin their delicate work.

The fuse is effectively the brains of the bomb.

So you'll have a 250 kilo bomb which is just a large

amount of explosives.

It's the fuse, that is the trigger if you will,

what causes it to function.

So that's why if you identify the fuse,

you know exactly how it's going to work.

That's why it's the most important thing that we get to.

Richard and Ed have cleared the debris from around the device.

Now they need to neutralise it.

It's an intricate process.

It contains potentially volatile chemicals which could react

at any moment.

They use simple tools and a steady hand.

We're still using the same methods as they were in the world wars.

So, for this type of bomb, it was using what we call the S-Set.

And that's where you have to drill into the fuse by hand.

With the site cleared and their colleagues well behind the cordon,

it's a lonely job for the two-man team.

Using a hand drill to minimise vibrations,

Richard first makes a hole in the side of the fuse and inserts a small

metal tap.

Next, he attaches a plastic hose to the tap and slowly pumps in a

saltwater solution.

The liquid should neutralise the chemicals in the fuse.

But the two men can't be sure.

Many German bombs were deliberately booby-trapped

to target disposal teams attempting to make them safe.

You always think about what's going to happen.

I wouldn't say there's nerves, because if you are thinking down

that route, you're not really focusing on the job at hand.

You do get that back thought to Blitz time and thinking,

actually this process has happened for 70 plus years.

Richard and Ed successfully flood the fuse with the solution.

But it needs time to work.

The bomb is left sitting there overnight.

3,000 residents are still out of their homes,

with more than 100 people staying at the leisure centre.

The next morning, Richard and Ed are back.

Even with the fuse neutralised,

the only way of dealing with the explosives the bomb contains

is to blow it up.

The item is still a large lump of explosives,

so it's still inherently dangerous.

So, every action from then, from basically the igloo that it was in,

we had to slowly deconstruct that.

Move the item into our transport vehicle.

It's too dangerous to dispose of the bomb in Bermondsey.

So the bomb team carefully move it onto a lorry

to transport it to a safe area for detonation.

We brought a truck, filled it half with sand

so it can take slight movement.

Any great shock could still potentially cause it to function,

so we had to take the greatest care at this point.

We then agreed that we wouldn't move it over 20mph so we kept it at a

very slow speed.

With the aid of a rolling police cordon,

the bomb is transported 30 miles to the detonation site

at Cliff in Kent.

The relief of actually getting it out, just out of London

at this point, was a huge relief.

Richard and Ed arrive at the detonation site after a nail-biting

one and a half hour journey. The bomb is placed in a deep sandpit.

This photograph shows them setting a length of safety fuse

as they prepare for detonation.

When we eventually did dispose of it, we put in a large cordon,

we put 60 tonnes of sand around it.

They still can't be sure what state the bomb is in.

Taking no chances, they cordoned off an area of 700 square metres.

You're unsure with the explosives involved,

if they have degraded or they haven't degraded

over the period of time.

With their job almost done,

the two men walk back to the edge of the cordon.

They're about to find out the condition of the 70-year-old bomb.

It certainly hadn't degraded.

It was quite a large explosion.

The ground shock, the fragmentation, the blast, the overpressure,

and there were still small fragments coming out at approximately 400

metres would have caused significant damage to the surrounding buildings.

Back at the building site, the thought of what could have happened

that day is suddenly very real for Jacob.

It's massive.

We was literally a couple of inches away.

I reckon we all would be dead and all the buildings around,

flat collapse.

With the device removed, Bermondsey gets back to normal.

And Mary is back home and grateful for the quick response

of the emergency services, in particular the Army's bomb

disposal unit.

Very brave men.

That defused it and worked with it.

They were the ones that we give all the praise to.

They were the men who saved our lives.

Coming up... A severely injured woman lying in a field

calls for help.

A paramedic finds evidence pointing to what's happened.

There was feet prints within the soil that was around her

and the cows were there where she was found.

Denbighshire, North Wales.

With his dashboard camera recording,

Norman Drinkwater's driving home on a country road when this happens.

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

The car rolls off the bank and hurtles towards Norman,

filling his field of vision.

I was expecting it to come through my windscreen.

I really was.

67-year-old Norman is originally from Anglesey

but has lived in Denbigh for 17 years.

I'm the local postmaster and I run the village shop myself

with the help of my wife.

To pick up stock, Norman makes regular trips

around the region in his van.

And some time ago, he decided to invest in some extra security.

We were warned that there was car crime in the area,

so I had CCTV fitted on the outside of my shop and the dash cam

fitted in the car.

Norman's got into the habit of recording his journeys to and

from his suppliers and today's no different.

It's late Saturday morning,

Norman and trusty companion, Maisie, are travelling back from the

wholesalers on the B5381.

The roads locally are quite winding.

You need to take care.

Also on the road today is Leslie Farrell.

She lives in the quiet Welsh market town, too.

I'm a cleaner, which is great for me because I have OCD,

so great job because I can't stop cleaning!

I moved to Denbigh nine years ago.

I love Denbigh, it's a lovely, lovely, friendly place.

People are very, very kind here.

They do go out their way to help you.

This Saturday morning, she's heading out on a family visit.

I was going to visit my sister, have a cup of tea and a chat

and a catch up with family and I didn't make it.

Leslie and Norman are travelling towards each other on the same road.

There are about to meet.

I saw a blue car in the distance.

And it came round the corner, veered onto the wrong side of the road.

His camera captures what happens next.

As the car comes round the bend,

something causes the back end to slide away.

Out of control, the car smashes into the bank and hits a tree.

The car's thrown violently into the air and somersaults not once,

but twice.

Glass and pieces of it fly off as it hurtles towards Norman's van.

I was expecting it to come through my windscreen. I really was.

As the car careers straight at Norman, he gasps in horror.

His van shudders as the car somersaults over him,

its wheels striking the roof.

I put my brakes on sharply but I let go of my brakes to get

past the blue car.

Norman pulls up within a few yards,

and realises it was only a glancing blow.

He's unharmed.

But the other car crash lands just behind him on his side of the road.

Norman gets out and instinctively runs back towards it.

But he's frightened of what he might find.

It's horrifying.

I was expecting to see...

..if not dead, a seriously injured person in the car.

Behind the wheel is a shocked Leslie.

The car just went.

The air bag exploded into my face.

I thought I'd just hit the embankment.

I didn't realise I was rolling until my arms were moving.

I just felt horrendous pain that just hit me in the stomach.

I think it must've been the seat belt.

And when I actually landed,

my back absolutely just gave way and that was the only thing I could

think. I couldn't feel anything else but the pain in my back.

Leslie's smashed car comes to rest partially in a ditch,

with the driver's side up against a hedge.

She is trapped and can't move.

She looked pretty shocked.

She said she was OK, but I wasn't taking that on face value

because she looked pretty grey.

It was just really, really painful.

I immediately got on the telephone for an ambulance

and a gentleman came out of another vehicle and attended to the lady.

It's builder, Larry, and he immediately spots

a potential danger.

There was a lot of fuel on the floor.

There was a lot of smoke coming off the steering column.

I was concerned that the car was possibly going to go into flames.

Larry acts quickly.

I took the ignition keys out,

tried to hope that that might sort of isolate the battery.

In emergencies like that, you just think,

any way you can stop electric running through the car.

As the smoke clears,

Larry realises it's just the dust from the air bag that's gone off

and his attention now moves to Leslie.

She was shivering because of the pain she was in.

He went round, he got coats off everybody and he put coats on me.

I tried to reassure Leslie to stay calm, just by chatting.

Smalltalk, really.

And he talked to me and he talked about family.

If she'd injured herself and tried to panic or tried

to get out the car, that was going to be quite serious

if she'd done that before the paramedics got to her.

I asked Larry to phone my sister and then she phoned my other half.

The police and ambulance paramedics arrive followed shortly after

by Leslie's partner, Jim.

I was so relieved to see Jim when he turned up.

The paramedics were having trouble getting to me,

so they were waiting for the fire crew to come to get the door off.

But Jim couldn't wait any longer,

so he just ripped the door away so that the paramedics

could get closer to me.

And he stood there at the car and winked at me.

And I said, "As soon as I can walk, we'll get married."

While the paramedics treated Leslie,

Jimmy takes pictures of her crashed car and the damage to the grass bank

she mounted. The force of the crash has uprooted a tree.

North Wales Fire and Rescue arrive and help the paramedics

to move Leslie carefully out of the car onto a stretcher.

She's taken by ambulance to Glan Clwyd Hospital in Rhyl

to be immediately assessed in the emergency department.

I hurt my shoulder and my arm, the top of my arm.

My ankle was pretty badly swollen and the bottom of my back.

But remarkably, considering the dramatic nature of the accident,

doctors discover Leslie has no serious injuries, just bruising.

And three hours later, she is able to go home.

I'm just one very lucky person!

There's a lot of people up there looking after me!

I've never seen anything like it in my life.

I was expecting to be sending flowers.

The safety of the car and the efficiency of the services

kept her safe, really, to be honest.

And thanks to partner, Jim, after her near miss,

Leslie soon to be a missus!

I'm getting married next month.

He kept me to my word and phoned on the Monday morning

and organised the wedding.

A close call, a near miss, whatever you like to call it,

it can be too close for comfort.

Sometimes, well, you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

The village of North Scarle in Lincolnshire.

These are the terrified screams of Sarah Leonard.

She is alone in a remote field in excruciating pain

and her injuries are life-threatening.

She's been attacked and trampled by a herd of cows.

Against all the odds, she's managed to dial 999,

but she doesn't know where she is and can barely talk.

Desperate, Sarah needs help fast.

59-year-old nurse, Sarah Leonard, and her dog, Meggie,

often go walking in the countryside.

Sarah's a keen geo-cacher, a kind of cyber treasure hunter.

She uses a GPS navigation unit to seek out hidden objects

secretly placed around the world by fellow enthusiasts.

Geo-caching is hi-tech treasure hunting.

Basically, you are going out, you're looking for some sort of container.

It might be a Tupperware box, a decent sized one.

Or it might be the tiniest little container.

It's got to have a bit of paper in it so that you can sign it.

Today's search has brought her to a farmer's field in Lincolnshire.

As they close in on the coordinates of the latest hidden bounty,

Sarah and Meggie are all alone in the vast meadow.

But they've drawn the interest of a nearby herd of cows

which begins to move towards her.

I can remember seeing the cows coming towards me.

And I know that I shouted at them.

It's not really a memory, but I just know that I did.

What happens next is a mystery.

Sarah finds herself on her back in the mud.

She's disorientated and badly injured.

She's lost her GPS but manages to get her phone out of her pocket

and call for help.

Sarah is in desperate need of an ambulance.

But her injuries are so severe she is struggling to communicate.

-Hell...

-Pardon?

The call handler tries to get more information.

She needs to track her location but Sarah has no idea where she is.

The emergency worker alerts the police and the Ambulance Service

but without more precise details, they don't know where to look.

Sarah is in extreme pain and can only lie flat out on her back,

hoping the cows won't return.

The call handler stays on the line for 45 minutes,

reassuring her that help is coming.

But the injured nurse is obviously distressed.

Police finally trace Sarah's phone signal and 30 minutes later find her

car parked next to a church.

But they still need to find Sarah.

Officers search the area and eventually locate her on a public

footpath in a farmer's field.

Paramedic Wendy Coghill has also been searching for Sarah.

Police direct her to the remote field.

When we arrive at the scene, we found that Sarah

was lying on her back.

Both her arms were fractured.

She had bruising to the chest area.

She couldn't actually communicate very well with us due to the

facial injuries, to tell us what had actually happened

and where it hurt her or where the pain was or anything like that.

And there's no doubt in Wendy's mind that for whatever reason,

Sarah has been crushed by the herd.

There was feet prints within the soil that was around her.

And the cows were there when she was found.

She realises Sarah has become one of scores of people badly injured or

killed in cow attacks every year in the UK.

With Sarah's terrified spaniel, Meggie, nowhere to be seen,

she is taken to Lincoln County Hospital

for emergency life-saving surgery.

She spends two and a half weeks in intensive care

before waking up with no memory of the event.

I broke both my arms.

My left arm was crushed at the elbow.

I had a collapsed lung.

I broke my left collarbone, my jaw and most of my ribs

down the left side.

24 hours after Sarah's accident, the police revisited the field

and found Sarah's dog, Meggie, cowering in a hedgerow.

Three weeks later, they were reunited in the hospital ward.

Sarah spends a further five months recovering at home.

She'll always be grateful to the police and ambulance crews

for finding her.

I really am thankful.

Sorry, it's bringing tears to my eyes.

I am amazed at what they did.

That's all today. Join us next time for more Close Calls.