Seven killed in A66 wrong-way crash near Middlesbrough, two officers named

Five males and two Cleveland Police officers died after a Volkswagen Passat drove the wrong way on the A66 in Teesside. Police had aborted a pursuit seconds before impact.

Two officers and five males named after fatal A66 collision in Teesside

Seven people — including two Cleveland Police officers and a 16-year-old boy — were killed in the early hours of Saturday when a car travelling the wrong way along a dual carriageway near Middlesbrough collided with a marked police vehicle, TheJournal.ie reports.

Cole Robert Worthy (16), Theo Rae (17), Makai Saddington (18) and 23-year-olds Michael Robert Cahill and Jacob Matusiak died when their Volkswagen Passat struck an armed response vehicle on the A66 in South Bank at 3.39am. Pc Matthew Blades (37) and Pc Tom Clough (38), of Cleveland Police, also died in the collision. Both officers had been travelling in the correct direction.

It emerged on Sunday that officers had aborted the pursuit of the Passat — believed to have been using cloned number plates — seconds before it struck a different police vehicle. The Passat was not being chased at the moment of impact.

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating the events leading up to the crash following a mandatory referral from Cleveland Police. The watchdog was expected to provide an update on Sunday afternoon. Officers had first spotted a suspicious vehicle and initiated a pursuit before the Passat moved onto the A66, the IOPC said.

'A massive impact' on a close-knit force

Pc Blades, a husband and father of two, had recently become a coach at Seaton Carew FC and was preparing to take his first session with the under-sevens Seahawks squad. "He was looking forward to being part of the team and, most importantly, to coaching his own son, who is going to be playing for the Seahawks this season," the club wrote on social media. "Matty and his oldest son are much-loved members of our club and our U10 Lions football family."

Ex-frontline responder Graham Wettone, who served in the Metropolitan Police for more than three decades, described the effect of the crash on Cleveland Police colleagues as "massive". "In forces like Cleveland, they will literally know most people," he told the Press Association.

Cleveland Police had a workforce of 2,647 in March 2024, including officers, police community support officers, special constables and volunteers. Wettone noted the Met had around 30,000 officers when he served there — a contrast that underscores how tightly interconnected Cleveland's officers are.

Armed response officers such as Blades and Clough typically have a significant policing career behind them before reaching that role, Wettone said, having "worked their way through police response teams, police community teams". That makes their loss especially felt within the unit, he added, where the same small crews respond together regularly.

"It's not until afterwards when you get home, often, that you think about what you've dealt with during your shift," Wettone said, describing how officers process traumatic events on the job.

He said the incident "will have a huge impact on policing across the whole country" but expressed confidence it would not stop officers from going out and attempting to stop vehicles.

Community and political reaction

Cleveland police and crime commissioner Matt Storey described the force as a "really tight-knit family" and said the deaths "will have a big impact on them".

Anna Turley, MP for the Redcar constituency where the crash took place, said the "whole community is reeling here today" on Sunday morning. She described Cleveland Police as a "close-knit" force and a "police family", adding: "I know all of them are so professional they'll be back on with their duties again today."

Cleveland Police Federation chairwoman Lauren Somerville said: "Words cannot describe the pain the Cleveland Police family are feeling today. Our colleagues who should have been going home to their loved ones at the end of their shifts are not. And that is just unfathomable."

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he was "devastated" to hear about the crash. Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood said her thoughts were with all those affected.

Witness account

Witness Neil Hutchinson told the Mail on Sunday he was woken up at around 3.30am by police cars moving at speed through the area with lights and sirens active. Ring doorbell footage, published by several outlets and apparently recorded on Lime Road shortly before the crash, shows a car being driven rapidly down a residential street followed by police vehicles.

Source: TheJournal.ie