Seven people have died in a violent accident on the A66, near Middlesbrough, in the north-east of England. A Volkswagen Passat with five young people on board, traveling the wrong way, crashed head-on into a Cleveland Police vehicle traveling in the correct direction. All the occupants of the two cars died in the impact: five boys between 17 and 23 years old and two policemen, Matthew Blades, 37 years old, and Tom Clough, 38.
The chase lasts seven minutes, then the Passat takes the A66 against traffic
The crash occurred at 3.39am on Saturday 22 August in the South Bank area. According to the reconstruction of the independent body that investigates the work of British law enforcement, the Cleveland Police had received information relating to “numerous accidents” linked to a Volkswagen Passat. The car, with five people on board, is later spotted and a police armed response team vehicle begins to chase it.
The images recorded by the camera installed on the police car allowed investigators to establish that the chase lasted just under seven minutes. The Passat then reaches the A66 at South Bank and enters the lane in the opposite direction of traffic. It is at that moment that the officers stop the pursuit and instead continue traveling in the correct direction. But just about ten seconds later the Volkswagen crashes into a second police vehicle.
This second car had not taken part in the chase: it was in the area to collaborate in the search for the Passat, suspected of using cloned license plates which had triggered an Anpr camera, the British system for automatic license plate recognition. On board were Matthew Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38. Both died at the scene. The five occupants of the Passat also did not survive the impact.
The police also officially identified the five occupants of the Volkswagen. They are Cole Robert Worthy, 17 years old, Theo Rae, 17 years old, Makai Saddington, 18 years old, Jakub Matusiak, 23 years old, Michael Robert Cahill, 23 years old. Agents specializing in family assistance are following the relatives of all the victims.