Seven killed in A66 crash including two police officers

Seven people, including two police officers and five young men, were killed in a high-speed collision on the A66 near Middlesbrough in the early hours of Saturday, August 22. The crash occurred after a Volkswagen Passat, which police had been pursuing, drove into oncoming traffic and struck a marked police vehicle.

Cleveland Police identified the officers as PC Tom Clough, 38, and PC Matthew Blades, 37. The five civilians in the Passat were named as Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Makai Saddington, 18, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, and Jacob Matusiak, 23. All seven were pronounced dead at the scene following the collision at 3:39 a.m.

According to a timeline provided by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), Cleveland Police had received intelligence about "numerous incidents" linked to a Volkswagen Passat believed to be using cloned license plates. The vehicle was spotted after its plates activated an automatic number plate recognition camera. An armed response vehicle initiated a pursuit that lasted just under seven minutes before the Passat drove onto the A66 at South Bank against the flow of traffic.

Police aborted the pursuit, with the armed response vehicle...