Episode 18 Close Calls: On Camera

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

I could die here, this is really serious.

A split second where the outcome could go either way.

Right, call 999, now!

The difference between disaster and survival.

You could see it on the faces of the crew, how life-threatening this was.

Why would you need to swim? Apparently, they're supposed to still be on a boat.

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

I thought she had died.

It's a day they'll never forget -

the day they had a close call.

Today on Close Calls...

a man working near a remote Scottish loch

is trapped under a dumper truck.

It's rolled on top of him.

The emergency services try to establish how badly he's been hurt.

And a racing driver speeding into a turn tries to slow down as the rest

of the field bunch up in front of him...

..but his brakes fail.

And you're just trying to do your best, you know? It's just...

it's survival. You're just trying to sort of fight for it.

The Mini racer somersaults off the track.

Also today...

a couple on their way to a birthday celebration overtake a supertruck.

Their dash cam captures what happens next.

Loch Tay, Scotland.

A call comes in to the emergency services

from a remote lochside location.

The caller has been rung by a distressed colleague working on the

other side of the water.

His friend's dumper truck has tipped over, rolling on top of him.

He's injured and being crushed by the weight of the vehicle.

The 999 call handler manages to make contact with the casualty.

The wounded man needs help quickly,

but no-one is sure exactly where he is, including him.

The stunning county of Perthshire is home to landscape gardener Kevin,

who set up his business here 20 years ago.

I just love being outdoors, I mean, just being outside with nature.

You get to see different parts of the landscape every day.

Yeah, so it's just, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Kevin loves his job and it's also a means to support his family.

He dotes on his two young daughters.

Well, I mean, my kids are my world. Everything you do is for the kids.

Got two girls - Millie, who's nine, and Annie, who's eight.

Yeah, full of mischief.

Two wee blondies. Just, yeah, keeping me on my toes.

It's a Friday morning in April.

Kevin and his colleague Sandy are working at a house on the south side

of Loch Tay.

It's a beautiful but remote location.

Just working up Loch Tayside, great views.

We had hit rock on the job, so we had to bring a breaker,

and a bigger breaker. Sandy was breaking out the rock,

and I was loading the dumper round the corner

and carting the rock down towards the loch.

The two men are working some distance apart when Kevin sets off

along a muddy track to get rid of his third truckload of the day.

He's driving a mini dumper truck weighing more than two tonnes.

Suddenly, the machine starts to tip.

The dumper lost balance.

One of the wheels sunk in a wet piece of ground.

Before he can do anything about it, the dumper begins to keel over.

Kevin makes a split-second decision.

I could feel the machine going, and that's when I thought,

"Time to bail out."

I tried to jump off, but my waterproofs got stuck on one of the

handles, and the next thing, it was on top of me.

Kevin is pinned down in the mud underneath the truck's heavy engine.

He's trapped and knows he's badly injured, too.

I looked down to see the sole of my welly boot at my knee, so I thought,

my initial reaction was, my welly had come off,

but that's where my foot was.

It had snapped halfway down my leg and come back on itself.

So once I realised what was going on there, I started panicking a bit.

But the wound to his leg isn't his only problem.

The rollbar came across my ribs, so it was

starting to crush me as well.

With the machine pressing him deeper into the mud,

Kevin desperately tries to attract his colleague Sandy's attention...

HE WHISTLES

..but he's 50 yards along the track, and around a bend.

He was breaking at the time. If anyone knows about hydraulic breakers, they're quite loud,

so I was shouting and whistling.

Kevin struggles to retrieve his mobile phone and dials 999,

but the signal is intermittent, and he can't keep the connection.

Spoke to somebody on the phone and then lost my signal.

Very bad place for a signal up there.

Kevin knows he's in big trouble,

and water is rising around him in the ditch.

Things going through your head, your family,

"Got to make every effort to get out of this situation," and, yeah,

dead scary.

His only option is to try to save himself.

Had to push myself out with my broken leg,

cos my other leg was trapped.

Excruciating pain. Absolute agony.

Never experienced anything like that, pain-wise.

He's left lying in the mud, exhausted and alone,

wondering where help could come from.

But the sound of his screams and shouts have carried across the

waters of the loch and been heard by workers there.

Suddenly his phone rings.

It was one of my friends from down the road, a farmer, Roddy.

Knowing Kevin was working on the south side of the loch,

Roddy is checking to see if he's OK.

Luckily, at that moment,

Kevin has enough signal to briefly explain his predicament.

Across the loch, Roddy calls 999.

On the other end of the phone is call handler Aaron.

A general knowledge of the area, I knew it was going to be quite hard

to access, and it was going to be quite a while

before we could reach him.

Roddy sets off towards his injured friend's location,

while Aaron immediately calls Kevin's number.

I had another incoming call on my phone,

and this was 999.

He sounded quite scared. As I was talking to him more,

he did calm, he calmed down a lot more.

I was still in a lot of pain,

but to know there was help on the way was certainly a big relief.

Hearing Kevin gasping with pain,

Aaron tries to establish the extent of his injuries.

Pins and needles that he was describing, the lack of feeling,

gave me some cause for concern about what he'd done to his leg.

The pins and needles would point towards a

vascular compromise, lack of blood flow.

Kevin's condition is deteriorating,

and the ambulance is having problems finding the location.

His confusion, caused by shock, isn't helping.

Growing more and more concerned,

Aaron calls out the Air Ambulance from Perth airport.

Just because of where he was, he couldn't have picked a worse place,

really. In the middle of nowhere, on the banks of a loch,

down a single-track road.

During the call, Kevin is discovered by a workmate who stays with him,

but it's another agonising 20 minutes before the 999 call picks up

the sound of the Air Ambulance.

I can hear the helicopter approaching,

and then it came into sight over the top of the trees.

This photograph shows the moment air medics arrive.

Lead paramedic John Pritchard finds Kevin in the ditch behind his

toppled dumper.

Kevin was very distressed when we got there, obviously,

and very relieved that we had got to him.

I thought, "Yeah, I'm in safe hands now....

-"Let them do their work."

-We saw that the limb was very,

very badly deformed at this point,

because this could be a limb-threatening injury.

They administered some morphine to me, to numb the pain a bit,

and that's when they decided to try and get me on the stretcher and

straighten my leg out, so they could strap me down.

It takes three paramedics to straighten Kevin's broken leg.

It needs to be pulled back in line,

and the sooner we can get that pulled back into alignment,

the better the circulation to the extremities of that limb.

He's flown to Ninewells Hospital in Dundee.

It's a 60-mile journey that would take over an hour and a half by car,

but takes just 20 minutes in the Air Ambulance.

I remember being in the helicopter, lying on my back,

looking at all the control panels.

The paramedics trying to keep talking to me and comfort me.

And that 20-minute flight was key in saving that limb.

Kevin suffered a broken ankle and shin, and several broken ribs.

He was in hospital for 14 days.

My kids came to visit me, eight and seven at the time.

I think they were just relieved to see their dad

was still in one piece.

After a number of skin grafts and operations,

Kevin was sent home to recover.

They inserted a titanium rod in through my kneecap,

and that goes down the middle of the bone, down through the marrow,

and connects the bone back up,

and they screw it down at the ankle and screw it at the top,

so now my bone is probably one of the stronger parts of my body!

A year of physiotherapy and recovery followed,

but Kevin is now back at work.

I'd like to thank everybody enormously

for what they did that day.

I think I was very lucky to get out

of it the way I have, actually, yeah.

Coming up, a husband and wife travelling along the motorway

are overtaking a huge lorry.

I didn't notice anything. I was just focusing on getting past.

But her husband does, and shouts a warning.

Knockhill, Dunfermline.

At Scotland's only race circuit, the Mini Cooper Cup gets underway.

Lights out, and away we go!

A driver halfway down the field has his pedal to the metal,

but at the first turn, the cars in front slow and bunch up.

He needs to lose speed, but his brakes fail.

He hits a kerb, then a team-mate,

and a split-second later is upside down,

careering off the track.

Then it started to barrel roll, and I'm thinking, "I hope he's OK,"

because it...because when I'm looking in my mirrors and I'm

watching it, it seemed pretty lethal.

Edinburgh - home to car and all-round racing fanatic Tim Sleigh.

He's not only been a top driver,

he now also runs a car business and a racing team.

But then again, it is something of a family tradition.

His dad Tom raced against some of the all-time greats,

including Jackie Stewart.

Tim pretty much grew up track-side.

I was very little when my father was still sort of racing.

It was a bit of a sort of family event.

We'd often walk up and down through the paddock,

and it was all quite exciting to us.

The smell of the fumes

and the noise of the revving engines was quite good.

So it's no great surprise when Tim starts racing at a young age,

first in motocross, and then later on four wheels, in a Fiesta XR2.

I was bitten by it. Next thing I know, I've bought this car,

I've bought... I bought a trailer. Once I started in 2009,

I think I qualified fifth in my first race.

I come from a very competitive family.

I mean, me and my brother used to race each other to the toilet!

You could see very early on that he was going to be pretty good.

He was getting the hang of it very quickly.

He won the Newcomers' Trophy, and the championship twice.

Tim then swapped Fiesta XR2 competitions for the more

challenging Mini Cooper racing, and liked that even more.

It's so exhilarating, because it's so tight.

It's door-handle-to-door-handle racing.

Everybody's just trying to squeeze through you. It's very exciting.

Tim's racing career really takes off at Knockhill racing circuit

in Dunfermline, home to Scottish motorsport.

Every year in the Mini Cooper Championship,

drivers compete over seven race meetings.

Four races in, and Tim's well-placed.

Team-mate Mikey Faulkner is convinced Tim's in with a chance.

Top guy, really good racer.

He's really quick. Really, really quick.

It's August, and at Knockhill racetrack,

Tim is lining up on the grid for the second race of the fifth meeting.

He's in 11th place after being bumped in the first race of the day,

and his championship dreams are looking hazy.

In the crowd, his parents know he'll be going all-out to pick up points.

Tim's adrenaline is pumping.

Your heart's really starting to race now as well. You sort of, you feel

it, you're going, but you're just trying to sort of focus as well.

You're trying not to...make sure your legs are shaking too much and

slip off the clutch!

The five-light countdown begins.

-And they're off!

-The light's out, and away we go!

From halfway down the field, Tim makes a good start,

aiming to quickly catch up with the leaders.

But just after the first turn, the cars are tightly packed.

It's a bottleneck, and Tim can't see a way through.

He has to slow down.

I'm charging on at quite a rate of knots,

and all the cars are pretty much stopping in front of me.

I've got to jump on the brake pedal myself,

and I find out the brake pedal's absolutely solid.

The car's brakes fail.

Tim can't stop.

My team-mate's right in front of me.

All I'm going to do is just plough all the way through these cars,

so I'm just trying to take necessary avoidance.

Tim does his best to take evasive action, but slams into the kerb,

bouncing into the rear nearside of the vehicle in front.

It's Mikey's.

All of a sudden, this massive thud behind me!

Looked in my mirror, I'm thinking, "Oh, that was my team-mate,

"that was Tim! Lucky! Thanks, Tim!" You know?

But Tim's got a lot on his mind right now.

He's somersaulting down the track.

There's a rollover! That's...that's Tim Sleigh!

And you're just trying to do your best, you know?

It's just...it's survival. You're just trying to sort of fight for it.

Because you would expect the weight transfer to bring it back down,

but because, I think, he hit the kerb so hard,

and it was such a massive thump,

it kind of just...it decided, "No, I'm not going to come back down."

The car tips over, on to its roof.

Tim's out of the race, but not out of danger.

Initially, when it was sliding down on its roof, down the hill,

I think I was calm, from what I can remember, you know?

I was calm, I was OK, I was just sort of...

It was more sort of frustration and disappointment, sort of thinking,

you know, "Well, that's me going to be out of this race."

Tim Sleigh rolled! That's a horrendous-looking roll!

At the bottom of the hill,

the car appears to slow, but it doesn't stop.

And it started to barrel roll, and I'm thinking, "I hope he's OK,"

cos it...cos when I'm looking in my mirrors and I'm watching it,

it seemed pretty lethal.

The combination of the track footage and Tim's own car camera shows what

happens next.

When it picked up to get going,

I suppose I kind of lost it.

I didn't know if I was upside down, I didn't know if I was forwards,

backwards, sideways. Completely disorientated.

It goes from big, huge, hard thumps...

LOUD THUDS OF IMPACT

..to sort of, like, being calm, and sort of nothing, and then a big

thump, bang, and you're getting thrown about.

And then it's sort of floating and there's nothing, and then,

bang, bang, bang! It's away again,

and I'm man enough to admit that I was scared at that moment

when it picked up the roll.

As the car rolls,

Tim's helmet and arm are visible through the now open door.

Mikey fears his team-mate is in real trouble.

My main concern was, you know, "Is he OK?"

You know, "Is he going to walk away from this?"

There's nothing he can do to help.

He drives his own damaged car into the pits and waits for news.

In the crowd, Tim's dad is unaware of what's happened.

He's watching at a bend further down the track.

Down at the hairpin, waiting for the cars to come, and Tim didn't appear,

and I thought, "That's strange." You tend to think,

"Oh, well...is he OK?"

You know, that's the first thing you think of.

Further back near the start, Tim's car has come to rest on the grass

verge at the side of the track.

Marshals and medics run across to help.

Inside the car, he checks himself over for injuries.

It's the initial quick assessment of, like, "I'm OK.

"No bones sticking out of shirts or anything like that," you know?

It was just, like, it was kind of...

"What's just happened?!"

I climbed out of the car, in my moment of madness,

climbed on the bonnet,

and climbed on the roof and took a bow and gave a wave to the crowd.

-Ever the showman, I suppose, but...

-HE LAUGHS

When the wreckage of the car is brought back to the paddock,

only the roll cage is left intact.

You think, "How on Earth did he walk away from it?"

How he didn't break his arm or a leg or anything like that,

it was very lucky.

He was a little bit in shock, but that's what you'd expect!

And I suppose I was a little bit in shock, too,

because it was far more than I'd thought of.

That's then when you begin to register a little bit that it's far

more dangerous than you think it is.

One of my sponsors actually said to me,

they said, you know, "Today was a good day."

And I said to him, "I fail to share your sentiment,"

and he goes, "No," he goes, "if you think about it," he says,

"you've had a massive accident like that,

"where you could have been killed."

He said, "You got out of the car, and you walked away.

"Today was a good day."

It's all about transport of one sort or another today.

But most of us don't use construction vehicles or race Minis.

Lots of us do, however, drive cars and use the roads.

Next, a story about a couple heading along the motorway to a birthday

dinner, who didn't get a chance to celebrate that night.

The M20 in Kent.

A couple heading along the motorway to a birthday celebration overtake a

huge supertruck. They notice it...

Big, white, state-of-the-art vehicle, not like the normal ones.

..but the driver doesn't spot them.

TYRES SCREECH

LOUD CRASH

The market town of Hythe on the Kent coast.

Tina Reed, who works for the National Grid,

lives here with her husband Ian,

and it's where they brought up their children.

We both lead quite an active life.

Our daughter, she's very energetic.

We did a lot of camping holidays, so it was all family-orientated.

Tina and Ian have been happily married for more than 20 years,

and they've made a habit of always doing something special

on their birthdays.

It's June, and Ian's celebrating his 55th.

The couple decide on a trip to the cinema,

followed by dinner to celebrate.

I'd actually pre-booked some tickets for the cinema.

We were going to go and see Jurassic World.

On that day, we'd left home around 6:25pm,

cos the show was starting at seven o'clock,

so we thought we'd get there in good time.

They set off with Tina driving and Ian alongside in the passenger seat.

A camera mounted on the dashboard records the evening traffic.

Tina installed it after an anxious moment on the same stretch

of motorway two weeks earlier.

Two weeks previously, I was driving to work in the morning,

and a lorry on the inside lane, as I was in the middle lane again,

had a blow-out, and he was weaving all over the road,

and the wheel came off and started to head towards the car,

and just before it got me, it veered off, and I said,

"I've got to get myself a dashcam."

The couple are travelling along the M20 from Hythe towards Ashford.

Traffic is flowing freely,

but following earlier problems at the Channel Tunnel,

there are a lot of big lorries in evidence.

Visibility was absolutely perfect.

It was a beautiful sunny day.

Tina uses the motorway daily on her way to work,

and she's used to seeing lots of HGVs heading for the tunnel.

But today, one in particular catches her attention.

I pulled out into the middle lane to overtake the queue of lorries.

I noticed one particular one,

which was the first one I was just going to come past.

Big, white, state-of-the-art vehicle, not like the normal ones.

And I was just passing, building up to top speed.

Tina's dashcam shows she has plenty of space in front,

between her car and another lorry further up ahead.

But Ian is looking out of the passenger side window at the big,

white truck they're still alongside.

Suddenly, he shouts a warning.

I didn't notice anything.

I was just focusing on getting past, and next thing,

Ian's sat next to me, saying, "Watch him! Watch him!"

And I'm thinking, "What, what's he saying, 'watch him'?"

And next thing, I hear, like, a bang.

Watch him!

It's too late.

The dashcam captures the horrifying seconds that follow...

LOUD CRASH

..and the couple's reaction.

The juggernaut drifts into their lane, clipping the back of their

car, and sending it into a terrifying spin.

The vehicle is thrown up the embankment and hurled over the top,

landing 40 metres away in a field.

Tina remembers every moment.

Then the car is suddenly spinning round, facing into the slow lane,

sideways. And then I recall another impact.

Basically, we'd gone in front of the lorry,

so he'd driven straight into the side, passenger, where Ian was sat.

I remember looking over, and as we sort of spun again,

I recall seeing Ian's head and shoulders go out the window that was

missing, and I thought, "He's dead."

I thought, "That's it, he's dead."

We end up going up the embankment,

full speed in reverse, through a fence.

With the impact, the force, it had thrown Ian into that side of me,

and there was a lever underneath my car seat,

and that had impacted on the back of my leg.

As the car spins, the camera on the dashboard flips around and films

Tina and Ian mid-crash.

Shock and confusion is etched on

their faces as they fly off the motorway.

Finally, the car comes to a standstill, right side up.

Their first thoughts are for each other.

-You all right, hon?

-Yeah, are you? Are you all right?

-I've hurt my rib.

-OK, OK.

I can recall, like, looking down and thinking,

"Still got my arms, still got my legs."

Jesus Christ!

It took a bit of time for it to sink in.

-Are we going to call the police?

-Give us your phone.

The couple dial 999, only to discover a number of motorists have

already alerted the emergency services, warning them

to expect the worst.

We understand, later on, talking to them,

is that they received calls saying,

"There's been a lorry's hit a car,

"but we don't think they've made it."

Police and Ambulance Services rush to the scene,

and the couple are taken to hospital.

Miraculously, although both are in severe shock,

they escape with just serious bruising.

Tina remembers her husband telling her he doubted he would survive.

He says to me that, at that moment we looked out the window and saw the

front grille of that lorry, he thought to himself, "Today, I die."

In fact, the truck's grille helped save their lives.

The brand-new lorry is designed to sweep obstacles away rather than

-crush them.

-It was designed to...like a snowplough.

It would move you away from its path.

I think that was our blessing that day, is that we weren't hit by some

ordinary run-of-the-mill juggernaut.

Ian has suffered another serious,

unrelated health issue since the accident,

but the couple have watched the footage from their dashboard camera

several times over and asked the same question.

How did we walk away from that?

I believe, that day, we were very lucky,

and we shouldn't have been here, but we are.

-You all right, hon?

-Yeah, are you?

That's all from Close Calls.

See you next time.