A66 crash that killed seven, including two police officers, now a major crime inquiry
The fatal A66 crash that killed two police officers and five young men has led to a widening organised crime investigation, multiple arrests and extra officers in Teesside.
The Full Story
A plain summary built from the channels that reported this story.
Seven people died in the early hours of Saturday when a Volkswagen Passat travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough hit a marked police car head-on. The dead included two Cleveland Police officers, PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, and the five occupants of the Passat: Jacob Matuszak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Ray, 17, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17. All seven were pronounced dead at the scene.
Police said the crash happened at about 3.39am on the dual carriageway at South Bank. The Passat had been seen earlier and a police pursuit began. Doorbell footage from Lime Road in Middlesbrough, filmed about three minutes before the crash, showed a car being followed by police vehicles. The Independent Office for Police Conduct later said the pursuit lasted just under seven minutes and was abandoned when the Passat turned onto the A66 against the flow of traffic. The collision with the armed response vehicle, which was not part of the pursuit, came about ten seconds later.
Chief Constable Victoria Fuller described the dead officers as brave, saying they did not return home to their families at the end of their shift. Flags were lowered at Cleveland Police headquarters and flowers were left at the scene. PC Blades was a father of two and a football coach; PC Clough was a former soldier. His family called him 'our hero'. A fundraising page set up by the Cleveland Police Federation passed £800,000 within days.
Four of the five young men who died had previous criminal convictions, including assaulting police officers and motoring offences. A video posted a year earlier on a TikTok account believed to belong to one of them appeared to show a police pursuit. Cleveland Police said there was no evidence that the fatal drive was being filmed for social media. The Prime Minister, Andy Burnham, called the glorification of dangerous driving 'truly reprehensible'. Social media companies were urged to remove content celebrating dangerous driving.
The IOPC investigation is examining the pursuit and the decisions made before the crash. The case has widened into an investigation of serious and organised crime. Police arrested a number of people, with the total reaching at least 17 at one stage, and later said further men had been arrested. Investigators also examined reports that a property linked to the father of one of the victims was rammed shortly before the crash. More than 200 extra officers were brought in to support Cleveland Police after a week of tension. In a separate development, a house fire killed a woman and a seven-year-old girl; police were reported to have said they were not linking it to the crash, though one report said the link had not been ruled out.
On screen
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Key Claims
Claims reported during this story's coverage, mapped by channel. Ordered by how many channels carried each claim.
| Claim | Channel 5 | BBC News | BBC One | BBC One | BBC Two | Channel 4 | ITV | Sky News |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The IOPC launched an investigation into the incident, and Cleveland Police is cooperating. | ||||||||
| The police watchdog confirmed that officers sighted a suspicious vehicle and initiated a pursuit before the crash. | · | |||||||
| A crash occurred at approximately 3:39am on the A66 at South Bank. | · | · | ||||||
| Multiple people died at the scene despite the efforts of emergency services. | · | · | ||||||
| The two police officers who died were named PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough. | · | · | ||||||
| Eyewitnesses said the parents went into the water to save the girls. | · | · | · | |||||
| Four people, two adults and two children, got into difficulty in the water at Shoreham. | · | · | · | |||||
| Police arrested 12 people in connection with the crash, nine men and three women aged 19 to 61. | · | · | · | |||||
| Police made arrests in connection with the crash, with reported totals of 12 and later 17 after five more arrests. | · | · | · | |||||
| The emergency response involved police, coastguard, RNLI, ambulance crews and two air ambulances. | · | · | · | |||||
| The five people in the Volkswagen Passat were aged between 17 and 23. | · | · | · | |||||
| The Prime Minister expressed sympathy and praised the emergency services. | · | · | · |
Channel Perspectives
What each channel focused on, with key quotes.
5 News focused on the expanding arrests and the emotional impact on Teesside, including the reaction of local people and the police federation. Its later bulletins also kept the spotlight on the fundraising total and the possibility of a link between the crash and a separate fatal house fire.
- “Five more people, including a 16-year-old boy, have now been arrested as part of the investigation, as well as a 23-year-old man on suspicion of making threats to kill.”
- “It's just a waste of life, you know what I mean? It's so sad.”
- “Police have not ruled out a link between the crash and a fatal house fire a mile away, which killed two more people.”
BBC One West anchored its coverage to official police statements, the confirmation of the officers' names and the growing criminal investigation. It gave significant time to local tribute, the IOPC's role and the later arrests linked to organised crime.
- “Tragically, two police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, died at the scene along with the five occupants of the Passat as a result of the collision.”
- “Cleveland Police say four of the five young men who died after their vehicle collided head on with a police car had previous criminal convictions.”
- “Now an extra 200 officers are being sent to support Cleveland Police in the northeast of England”
BBC News treated the crash as a major national story, leading with the death toll, the wrong-way collision and the mandatory IOPC investigation. It later reported the criminal records of four of the five Passat victims, the charges and the broader organised crime inquiry.
- “All of those involved were declared dead at the scene.”
- “Cleveland police say four of the five young men who died after their vehicle collided head on with a police car had previous criminal convictions.”
- “A man has been charged and five people remain in custody following the fatal collision on Teesside at the weekend in which seven people died, including two police officers.”
ITV1 built its reporting around the human toll and the investigation, naming the officers, highlighting the previous convictions of four of the Passat victims and tracking the arrests. It also reported that the police car involved was not part of the pursuit and that a property linked to one victim's father was rammed before the crash.
- “Seven people, including two police officers, have died in a crash in Cleveland. It happened in the early hours of this morning. A vehicle travelling the wrong way collided head on with a police car. None of the occupants of either vehicle survived.”
- “The two officers have been named as 37-year-old PC Matthew Blades and 38-year-old PC Tom Clough.”
- “Cleveland police today revealed that four of those youths had previous convictions, including for motoring offences.”
Sky News provided rolling breaking coverage and analysis of the police pursuit, using doorbell footage and expert commentary to examine when and why the chase was abandoned. It also reported the arrests, the ramming of a house linked to one victim's father and the wider organised crime lines of inquiry.
- “breaking news multiple people die in a crash involving a police vehicle near Middlesbrough”
- “The two officers who died here have now been named as PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough, who were both in their 30s.”
- “They are the embodiment of policing. Tom and Matt were so passionate about their job.”
Channel 4 led with the central question of why a car carrying five people was on the wrong side of the road at 3am, then moved into the wider organised crime investigation. It also covered the social media dimension, the naming of the victims and the police effort to distance the crash from a separate fatal house fire.
- “All seven occupants of both vehicles were pronounced dead at the scene.”
- “The five occupants of the Volkswagen Passat were in their late teens to early 20s.”
- “Cleveland Police says seven more men have been arrested as part of an operation to disrupt organised crime in the wake of the fatal A66 crash, which killed two police officers and five young men.”
BBC Two's Newsnight used the crash to examine the role of social media in dangerous driving, including an interview with a man whose pregnant partner was killed by a speeding driver filming himself. It reported the arrests but concentrated on whether platforms should do more to police content that glorifies reckless driving.
- “Police say there's currently no evidence that Saturday's crash was being filmed for TikTok, but Andy Burnham has criticised a wider trend of posting videos on social media glorifying dangerous driving.”
- “He's described those sharing such posts as truly reprehensible.”
- “12 people have been arrested over Saturday's deadly crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough, which killed seven people, including two police officers.”
Broadcast Timeline
News broadcasts tracked for this story, in time order.