Mangled Metal and Jangled Nerves - And the Elite Team of Men Who Can Conquor Both. HIGHWAY THRU HELL Debuts Sept. 4 on Discovery Channel

- Original eight-part Canadian series spotlights the highway heroes on call to help truckers in trouble and keep vital transport highway open -
- Find bonus content online at DiscoveryChannel.ca -

TORONTO, July 30, 2012 /CNW/ - Steep hills, lethal drop-offs, killer rockslides and wicked weather. These are a trucker's worst nightmares. But with urgent delivery deadlines and millions of dollars in cargo on the line, the Coquihalla Highway - 100 treacherous kilometres cutting through the heart of British Columbia's Cascade Mountains - is the only way to get the job done. And when something goes wrong, this highway needs heroes. Premiereing Tuesday, September 4 at 10 p.m. ET/PT on Discovery Channel, HIGHWAY THRU HELL follows the men of Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue as they fight to keep open some of the most economically important, most travelled - and most inhospitable - trucking routes in North America. An original eight-part Canadian series, HIGHWAY THRU HELL is produced by Vancouver's Great Pacific TV.

The white-knuckle HIGHWAY THRU HELL experience extends online, with full episodes, behind-the-scenes web extras and video diaries from some of the Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue crew. Click through an interactive map to launch video stories from cast and crew, POV footage, photos and key facts about the perilous highway. Additional show and episode information, research material and production photos are also featured online. And viewers can join the social conversation through Discovery's Social Screen with @DiscoveryCanada and @HWYThruHell.

In the mountains that surround Merritt, Princeton, Lytton and Hope, B.C., the highways are steep and icy terrain where Mother Nature reigns supreme. Beautiful but dangerous, these vital arteries form a nerve-wracking gauntlet that truckers must conquor in all weather conditions. An original eight-part Canadian series, HIGHWAY THRU HELL follows the team of heavy rescue tow truck drivers who work for Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue. Trying to climb a long and gruelling 8% grade during winter storms, truckers spin out and smash up. During the worst storms, the big wrecks can comes as often as every 12 hours. And when these wrecks close the road and choke traffic, the call goes out to Jamie Davis. Dropping everything to respond, it's is their job to remove the often-dangerous cargo, clean up the twisted metal, clear the road and get traffic rolling again for hundreds of drivers.

One of the world's most sophisticated rescue companies, Jamie Davis Heavy Rescue is no ordinary towing outfit - and its vehicles are the undisputed costars of HIGHWAY THRU HELL. Rescue 52, for example, features a fixed 30-tonne crane, and two powerful winches which extends the reach of the truck for hundreds of metres. It would take eight standard tow trucks to match the capacity of this single heavy wreck mover - a vital part of the rescue arsenal when a jack-knifed rig is dangling from a 120-metre cliff.

HIGHWAY THRU HELL captures the mountains, Mother Nature and the toughest men in the towing business being pushed to their breaking point. When lives, the economy and thousands of jobs depend on the highways staying open, the stakes are high with very little margin for error. And the last line of defence is Heavy Rescue…

To view the complete release - plus bios, photography and episode descriptions - go to bellmediapr.ca/discovery.

SOURCE: Discovery Channel

Jodi Cook, Discovery Channel & Factual Networks, 416.384.4603 or [email protected]
Lesley Diana, for Great Pacific TV, 604.726.5575 or [email protected]