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Ice Road Truckers

Editorial Review

Editorial Review

"Ice Road Truckers follows a group of truckers who make trips across the frozen lakes of Canada's Northwest Territories to deliver loads to several diamond mines. The frozen roads are only open for six weeks a year before the ice melts, meaning the drivers battle both time constraints and dangerous conditions on each trip they make.

In this episode young driver Jay Westgard leaves the base to haul a 17-tonne water tank while knowing his young daughter is in hospital with pneumonia. Meanwhile, rookie driver Drew Sherwood loses thousands of dollars for every hour his truck is off the road, first with mechanical issues and then when the ice road is closed after a fuel tanker rolls on a corner.

Ice Road Truckers should be boring: week after week trucks are driven in a relatively straight line across a landscape which is white for as far as the eye can see. But now for the interesting part - the dangers the truckers face every trip are so ridiculous it seems almost implausible that anyone would willingly do the job. Each load weighs numerous tonnes and the ice supporting the trucks is a mere three feet thick, which makes one wonder exactly how much these drivers earn. The exact figure is never mentioned, but the eagerness with which the drivers set out across the cracking ice suggests it must be substantial. Ice Road Truckers is perfect for voyeurs of a dangerous lifestyle which they themselves would never attempt.

Ice Road Truckers airs on Network Ten on Friday, 21 November, at 7:30pm.

Julia Gardiner, November 2008

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