We were called out to recover an LGV involved in an accident east bound on the A27, just by Eastern Road Portsmouth, and to help rescue a suspected trapped person.

On arrival we found the casualty vehicle had gone straight through the crash barrier, down the embankment and dropped over a 4ft wall onto a footpath. Fortunately the driver had managed to get out of the vehicle.

We arranged with the Highways Agency to close two lanes of the A27 to facilitate recovery and while waiting for the lane closure and the Highways Agency to inspect the damaged cabling, we removed the remaining load of tiles from in between the cab and trailer, and secured the crane unit on the rear of the trailer.

Once the lanes were closed, we set up the Volvo eight wheel heavy recovery unit to winch the unit back and upwards and set up the Foden 6x6 heavy recovery unit to lift the front of the crashed LGV.

When it was off the footpath and all wheels were on the embankment, we removed the crash barrier and with the Highways Agency's assistance, closed the remaining lane, placing the Foden across the outside lane and winching the stricken LGV on the rear of the unit.

The Volvo was reattached to the LGV just behind the cab in order to lift the near side away from the communication cables that run along side of the motorway.