Imagine a truck that can drive through deep water, climb muddy hills, pull heavy machines, and still be safe and gentle to the planet. Sounds like a superhero, right?
Well, Mercedes-Benz has built a real-life hero truck called the Unimog!
The Environment Agency has added two of these wonderful machines to its fleet of specialist vehicles which will help respond to incidents all across our country.
The Unimog is a very special kind of vehicle. It can carry and power lots of different tools, and as an all-terrain vehicle, it can go almost anywhere: fields, forests, muddy tracks and even flooded roads.
The Environment Agency are the people who help protect our rivers, homes and wildlife, so these two new Unimogs will be very very useful and very busy.
These trucks will be used when there are flood emergencies around the country.
They will help by carrying big pumps that remove flood water. They be used to tow excavators and heavy machines. They’ll be able to transport fuel, tools and rescue equipment and bring people back to safety when they are in trouble.
Sometimes floods make roads disappear. Ordinary trucks can get stuck but Unimogs can drive through deep water and muddy land when others cannot.
Ross Paterson, Head of Special Trucks, Daimler Truck UK said: “Adding two Unimogs to the Environment Agency’s incident fleet will help them provide incident response activities to locations needing specialist equipment. The support, handover and training provided to the Environment Agency by South Cave Tractors, has been exceptional and a perfect demonstration of what we can offer customers.”
The Unimog is very strong, it is designed to be efficient and environmentally friendly, helping protect nature while saving people.
So next time you see a picture of a muddy rescue truck splashing through flood water, it might be a Unimog, quietly working to keep everyone safe.