IT COULD have been so much worse for Graham Jackson. He might not have ended up on national television for starters, or he could have been seriously injured under a tractor.
Battling wet and sodden conditions the Peachester farmer was carting a load of firewood when the bridge he was manoeuvring over gave way as a support sleeper splintered under the weight of the machinery.
With no time to react, Graham was forced to hang on and hope for the best as his tractor slid off the bridge and into the creek.
Under normal conditions the mishap may have slipped under the radar, but as luck would have it the towies he called just happened to have a film crew following their every move.
Sunshine Coast’s Clayton’s Towing is featuring in Heavy Tow Truckers Down Under – an eight-part series on Discovery Channel that pits hardcore towing companies against each other as they battle it out to win the toughest and most lucrative tow contracts in the Southern Hemisphere.
As such, when the team of three Clayton’s towies turned up they also had two film crew, drones and Go Pros fitted to everyone as they guided their monster salvage machines and million dollar hardware across seemingly inaccessible terrain to the tractor.
For Graham, who was a natural in front of the camera as he explained how the mishap occurred, the successful operation was a great outcome considering how close he came to injuring himself and losing his tractor entirely.
While shocked about the situation he added he was grateful there wasn’t more damage to him and the tractor.
“I guess I was lucky it got stuck at 45 degrees and I wasn’t thrown into the water with the tractor so there was a bit of shock,” he said. “All in all it was a great outcome and ended up being a bit of fun.” GC&M News was on hand to see the Clayton’s team, led by Mike Clayton, calmly and professionally extract the tractor using their salvage skill-sets in a race against time ahead of forecast heavy rain.
