Ax Men loggers investigated over episode; Ice Road Truckers crew injured in accident

A crew working on the History Channel’s Ice Road Truckers was injured in Alaska, while some loggers featured on Ax Men are being investigated because of footage that aired on the show.

In Alaska last Thursday morning, “a pickup truck carrying three passengers and a driver hit a rig owned by Carlile Transportation Systems and … two of the four were injured, the driver possibly severely,” The Fairbanks Daily News-Miner reports. The accident was likely weather-related, as “[e]xtreme winds and drifting snow made it almost impossible to see” and “it took police almost three hours to drive 10 miles to reach the accident scene.”

History spokesperson Michael Feeney confirmed the people in the pickup were Original Products crew members working on Ice Road Truckers, and he told the paper, “Our continued concern is with those who are injured and their families. We are in contact with the production company and know that they are all receiving excellent care.”

Meanwhile, the Washington state officials are investigating S&S Aqua Logging, one of the companies featured on Ax Men. An episode showed them possibly “breaking state law by salvaging logs from the Hoquiam River without permits,” The Seattle Times reports. The government “seized more than 50 logs and other pieces of wood” that came from a “river bottom [that] is considered state aquatic lands, [so] the logs are public property. … The logs can be valuable because they are preserved and essentially pressure-treated while underwater,” the paper reports.

Jimmy and James Smith were shown pulling logs from the river on the show, and Department of Natural Resources law enforcement chief Larry Raedel joked to the paper, “We get our cases from TV now.” He said that “(the owner of the company) had inquired about permits, and we said we don’t issue permits for that kind of activity. So, apparently he went off on his own and was doing it.”

Public Lands Commissioner Peter Goldmark criticized the network, for some ridiculous reason, in a statement that said “It is unfortunate that the History Channel has chosen to glorify illegal activity and unsafe logging practices on their television program.”