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00:00Every serious incident on the road requires forensic examination.
00:07We've got to start asking the question, why is this happening?
00:10Pedestrian's been struck in the cold off area of the steel carriageway.
00:14The car is filled for stop.
00:16And inside the cordons, dedicated officers take on this challenge.
00:20Clearly, I don't think this came out of the factory sounding like that.
00:25This person's lost their life for whatever reason.
00:28We're here trying to establish why.
00:34Only now can I realise that that is actually in the middle of my lane.
00:38Tracking down the evidence.
00:40This is really important, this is key.
00:41To get to the truth.
00:43Once we've got somebody, that's going to put him in the driver's seat.
00:46There's a death on the road.
00:48So we've got to be investigating properly and thoroughly.
00:51This is a proper head scratcher, this is.
00:53All in a day's work for the crash detectives.
00:58Police emergency.
00:59There's...
01:00Oh my God.
01:02Well, there's a head on collision.
01:04Okay.
01:05Two lorries involved.
01:06Does it look like anybody needs an ambulance?
01:07Is anyone injured?
01:08Definitely.
01:09There's a guy in the front of the one lorry.
01:10I don't know whether he's dead or what.
01:12I don't know.
01:13I don't know whether he's dead or what.
01:14I don't know.
01:15Okay.
01:16All right, lovely, no problem.
01:17I'm going to send somebody down as an emergency straight away to you.
01:18All right?
01:19All right.
01:20All right.
01:21All right.
01:22We're on our way to a report of two heavy goods vehicles.
01:24Having collided head on.
01:25We're on our way to a report of two heavy goods vehicles.
01:26Having collided head on.
01:27We're on our way to a report of two heavy goods vehicles.
01:28In their local industrial site.
01:30These industry.
01:35And they're there, they're Attlightly.
01:36And that's all right.
01:37We're on our way to a report of two heavy goods vehicles.
01:46We are on our way to a report of two heavy goods vehicles.
01:51heavy goods vehicles having collided head-on on a local industrial estate.
02:11Critical care doctors are trying to treat a 55-year-old man who is currently trapped in his cab.
02:21Looking at it, I put it as life-threatening at the moment.
02:24100%.
02:25Okay, so we're going to keep it as life-threatening until the sun.
02:27Otherwise, you know what it's like, right?
02:38The only report we've had at the moment is one of the drivers appears to be seriously injured.
02:42There's still a fair bit of activity in relation to fire service.
02:53You've got three of their trucks here at the moment, potentially a volatile scene.
02:59What that means is we have to assess whether we're potentially going to lose any evidence
03:02because of the activity that's going on here.
03:18Over my neck.
03:23With the driver now cut free, Dean and colleague Rhys Dickinson begin to assess this crash scene.
03:30As far as we know, has anything been moved?
03:34No.
03:34Literally fire service, ambulance, us, we've all arrived at the same sort of time.
03:39So what we've got is what we've turned up to, basically.
03:42Obviously, the debris's been kicked about because they've been trying to get him out, so...
03:49He's going to go to Cardiff. He's going to be taking the trick to the heath, I think.
03:53What's the extent of his injuries at the moment?
03:55Massive haematoma to the side of his head. Potential fracture to his left leg.
04:01HeliMed are going to treat it as life-threatening until he's got a CT scan on the head.
04:09This guy's no... there's no concerns for him. He's all right at the moment. We've got an officer with him.
04:14Which one is he?
04:14Yes.
04:20The dash cams in there?
04:21Not two dash cams.
04:23Dash cams in both.
04:23One in this one, fire service of us, and cut it round. To get him out, to do the windscreen,
04:28they've cut it round, so it is in one piece.
04:31That one hasn't been touched. Nothing has been touched since we've turned it up.
04:34Exactly.
04:35Everything's been kept as though as possible.
04:37Officers now want more details about this lorry's journey leading up to the crash.
04:43Just thinking, all the businesses off to the right. Can we do a fast track up there to see if he's come from there?
04:49Try to be another industrial site here and see if he's come out of any of them.
04:52Okay. Find out the route of the...
04:55Yeah. Cheers, mate.
04:57Has he got any notes in there?
04:59I haven't got in there, obviously. I didn't want to touch anything until the boys turned up and...
05:03I think that's all open.
05:07Can't say anything obvious. Doug will move around him.
05:09Oh, that's the time, Tom. Tell your party's gone on.
05:12You know, the one casualty has come from the truck where the fire service have been at work,
05:18and they cut part of the truck away to be able to get the driver out.
05:22So the damage, obviously, is going to be different to that immediately after the impact.
05:25The fire service has been doing their work.
05:27So we managed to get him out. They're treating him at the stretcher at the side of the road now
05:31and assessing him before they move him off to the hospital.
05:33This driver, he's been assessed, and thankfully, he doesn't appear to be too seriously injured.
05:42And a search of his cab has revealed more about the trip.
05:47Trevor, it looks as if he might have come out of Oakwood Close, Pennyvan Industrial Park.
05:50I'm all right. No worries. I'll send him up there now.
05:53Which is weird.
05:54Cheers, mate. Is that... Would that be the junction on the right up there now?
05:57Yeah, I think it is the junction side.
06:00Here we are. No worries, mate.
06:01If they can do the inquiries here and whether we've got any footage of him leaving.
06:03OK.
06:22As wider investigations focus on this lorry's movements
06:26before the crash, Dean and Rhys have questions about the position it's in now.
06:34Is he reversing?
06:37I'm certainly not been shunting that part back, is he?
06:41The obvious thing that strikes me is that there's quite a distance between the trucks.
06:46It can occur whether one vehicle can rebound off.
06:50But when you've got trucks that potentially they both
06:52in excess of 38, 40 tonnes, it'd be unusual for a vehicle like this to rebound that far after impact.
07:03So could establishing the point the two lorries collided explain more?
07:08Yeah, I've got it.
07:09Yeah. Point of impact?
07:11Yeah.
07:12Excuse me, mate. Can you just not stand right there?
07:22We've got an obvious lock wheel mark going into a scuff off to the left.
07:27The nature of that mark tells us that that is the point of impact is at that point there.
07:37The lorries probably would have been together after impact.
07:41I would think he's possibly reversed off to be able to get after a casualty.
07:45What's that side, guys?
07:59Yeah, take a plane?
08:00Yeah, yeah, please.
08:02Just clearing the scene now, clearing everything away.
08:04Once they finish then we can assess what's going on.
08:07the injured driver might be on his way to hospital but there's still evidence here to reveal his
08:18actions in the lead-up to the collision so you're looking for brake marks and other features on the
08:25road surface we've identified already there's a number of what appear to be locked wheel marks
08:29from the rear trailer wheels you may have potentially locked wheel marks from the rear
08:35of the tractor unit as well for all that would build a picture of how much time the driver had
08:41to react and what distance he had to react in it but this crash involves 44 ton trucks capable of
08:56carrying huge or potentially dangerous loads do we know if this is carrying anything
09:04don't know what I'm carrying just in what I'm carrying I think it happens
09:08okay
09:08oh cool not much
09:23just confirm or die I know he's got a delivery notes but it has gone and has come just an orange
09:37board we've just looked in the back of that one and that's just got some boxes of stuff and they've
09:42just said this one's supposed to be empty I'm not trusting I'm going to check anyway there are boards
09:48on there that shows that he does carry hazardous goods even though the board is closed it's worth a check
09:53now the focus turns to other vehicles needing to access this busy industrial area
10:09all the ambulance are fired all right now the only thing we've got left there which is a bit of a
10:15problem is trapped traffic at the top trapped lorries airways do you think we can get them on the
10:21near side on the pavement without interrupting the scene if there's nothing in that lane there's
10:26going to be an issue they can come down that lane because all the lorries are stuck up that way there
10:43is literally no other way they can get out so we're just assessing up this end to see if this lane hasn't
10:49got any evidence at all and we're going to clear the lorries and get all them through so if we can
10:55we try and open it up for them but we've got to make sure we're not going to lose any evidence by
10:59doing it so we're just looking for any pre-impact marks from the lorry so we've got a bit coming
11:12through here which could be one of the the trailer wheels locking up so it's just that one bit there
11:18yeah just not there potentially
11:39with pressure eased for now
11:41there's time to take a closer look at exactly how the lorries have made contact
11:47guys we're only looking about 10 to 20 percent overlap
11:54not a lot no it's identical on both same area
11:59and the location of the damage reveals details about the actions of each driver
12:06that one hasn't been moved at all so if you position that truck here he's obviously tried
12:11to take a base of action yeah he's tried to turn to the left he's tried to swerve yeah
12:15yeah and he's just come straight and he's gone straight yeah
12:22and something inside the cab has now caught their eye very interestingly look the seat belts clicked in
12:34it is actually locked so that means this is position he was in at the time of the impact
12:49initially we thought that he wasn't wearing it because we thought it was clipped into the receiver
12:55and just lying across which would have shown he was sort of sat on it but when i've got in it's
12:59actually not clipped in and the receiver is down this end so in all likelihood someone has actually
13:06undone it when they've tried to get him out of here
13:10well have a look at that camera while you're there it's a uh it's a locked one locked is it
13:21as inquiries begin to access the footage
13:30the other lorry might prove more straightforward
13:37so we're going to seize the dash cam from this one um obviously we can't from the other one
13:48because it's a unit they can't tamper with i'll turn it off first so anything's saved
13:52one of the first things we saw that when we arrived at the scene is that the vehicle
14:22was a polish registered vehicle a left-hand drive
14:26they were locked wheel marks or skid marks on the road surface from this vehicle
14:33the obvious conclusion at that point was for whatever reason the driver was on the wrong
14:41side of the road at the time of the impact
14:51the driver has been checked out in hospital he spent the night in custody and now needs to explain just
15:02why he appears to have got it so wrong
15:07the reason for this interview is because you've been arrested on suspicion of um causing serious injury
15:12by doing this right
15:13he's answering questions with help from a translator
15:19i've got the dash cam footage from his vehicle
15:23he doesn't have to do it or he can do it if he wants to
15:31because this will not be good for my mental health
15:39if you could could you talk me through what happened leading up to the collision
15:51but first he says he wants to talk about his health
16:00okay i want to start with saying that i came to england this month but what i remember is that i
16:05got a high temperature i had this um really bad cough and sweating and it was like a cold i didn't have medication
16:19despite feeling unwell the driver said he continued with his work
16:25so i went to the place where i was unloading but i have to say that
16:39it was hard work and i felt that my cough was increasing
16:53what we know is that he was delivering to the premises on this industrial estate
16:59and he's obviously dropped off his delivery and he's coming back out to the main road
17:07after unloading i did all my paperwork
17:11then the cough came on but then it stopped and i went to the junction
17:23because of the cough but then um then the cough went away and i thought it was okay
17:40you've got traffic coming from his left-hand side which was a bit of a clue that they're on the correct side of the road
17:45he starts to move off towards the junction
17:53sees a giveaway line and then he's turning left onto the the main industrial road
18:02we see he pulls out and initially he appears to be going towards the left-hand side of the road
18:08and it comes back to the right-hand side
18:19when i pulled up the cough came on again but it was so severe and so accurate that um
18:24i saw blackness i felt like i almost vomited like i was throwing up it was awful
18:31the vehicle accelerated up to around 20 miles per hour and it continued for approximately 120 to 130 meters
18:43okay and then the catastrophe
19:01that's the first available view the truck drivers would have had of each other
19:09approximately 60 meters between them
19:12the driver probably can't believe what's happening
19:16he's confronted with another truck coming towards him
19:19filling the road in front of him um sheer panic i would have thought
19:26but was the other driver able to react in any way
19:31what you will see from the truck coming towards us is the hazard lights will suddenly come on
19:36you see the hazard lights on and flashing
19:42what that indicates is that he's applied maximum braking
19:46and the truck has realized it's in an emergency situation and the hazard lights will automatically come on
19:51there was locked wheel marks or skid marks on the road surface that showed us that he'd break prior to the impact
20:04at this point as well you see him trying to turn to the left
20:06the natural reaction is to swerve away from the danger
20:14the driver's hand there
20:19it's his right hand doing that
20:25you know the corners of the vehicle have taken the brunt of the impact rather than the full frontal
20:30if he hadn't attempted to swerve to the left then it probably would have been a head-on
20:38so he did have time to try and do something
20:41but not enough time
20:42and the dash cam in his lorry was also recording
21:00there we go that's the polish vehicle coming towards us now
21:22he is completely on the wrong side of the road
21:24and in fact he starts to bend more towards his right and our left
21:42i hit my head um on the window and because of that i think um i blacked out but before blacking
21:52out i saw that the other drivers um face
21:59so i i managed to reverse
22:04the collision was huge you had a combined impact speed of around 45 miles per hour
22:11it's effectively like one or both the vehicles driving into a brick wall
22:18a brick wall that doesn't collapse
22:19they both stopped at the point of impact
22:26such was the magnitude of the impact
22:32but was there any reaction from the driver who was traveling on the wrong side of the road
22:37from the available evidence it appears that the polish driver didn't take any evasive action
22:44other than being able to break at or just immediately before the impact itself
22:49if he's got a cough and he feels like blackened out why didn't he pull over and stop
23:01i think i became for a short period of time i became disoriented because
23:08i felt like this cough is like um taking my lungs out
23:13he suggested that the cause of the collision uh was him suffering a coughing fit
23:23what was significant about that was obviously uh the the dash cam fitted the vehicle recorded
23:29everything including audio is he aware that this dash camp has sound recording as well
23:36as the vehicle moves off you can hear the satellite navigation system you can do the engine and you can
24:05hear the indicators
24:13the truck continued along the wrong side of the road for about approximately 20 seconds
24:21you could quite clearly hear what was going on inside the cab
24:24and you hear a kind of expletives um just before the impact which is obviously from the driver
24:40significantly what you don't hear is him suffering a coughing fit
24:44i've listened to the recording and there's no coughing leading up to the collision
24:59i don't know how because i was coughing
25:03had there been any sort of even the slightest the car flare and all the coughing fit you would have been
25:08able to hear it but he certainly didn't help his cause by lying essentially sticking to this version
25:19of events which he knew wasn't true
25:23the lorry driver maintained his story but chose to plead guilty to causing serious injury by dangerous
25:31driving he was jailed for 20 weeks you can't hide it's all there in pictures
25:43and then sometimes as we know in this case audio as well
25:50the injured driver said he felt compassion for a man in the same profession
25:55after all he'd been through he was very forgiving you know he was still concerned that the other
26:01driver was okay and for you know for his family and concerned that he'd been locked up he even gave
26:08interviews about how grateful he was to have survived the crash he expressed his gratitude for the
26:15emergency services and the way he was dealt with so it goes to show the mark of the man really
26:19as injured as some gentleman was he appeared to be making a good thankfully a good recovery
26:31and then in the blink of an eye it's ended tragically
26:39following the day of that interview with the local media he tragically collapsed at home and died
26:49of the police the police the police the police driver served his prison sentence and was deported
27:14consideration was given for him to be charged with more serious offenses of causing the death
27:19special effects to the people of the police the police the police the police the police was
27:25making this special scene was made um that no further action would be taken
27:32being a professional rorry driver you set yourself up as being one of the best drivers on the road
27:41but we know he's driven for at least 20 seconds
27:44on the wrong side of the road
27:45Being a driver of his standard, he should not succumb to that type of distraction.
27:52It's a significant lapse of concentration.
27:58And you had the other driver doing a job he loved.
28:03Doing a job well.
28:09And ultimately it's tragic the way it's turned out.
28:15The End
28:36You
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