{"id":601447,"date":"2026-08-22T18:54:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:54:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601447\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T18:54:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T18:54:08","slug":"seven-people-killed-after-car-driven-wrong-way-on-dual-carriageway-in-northeast-england-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/601447\/","title":{"rendered":"Seven people killed after car driven wrong way on dual carriageway in northeast England \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Seven people, including two police officers, have died in a crash in northeast England in the early hours of Saturday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A Volkswagen Passat was travelling the wrong way down the A66 near Middlesbrough and collided with a police vehicle on the same road going in the right direction, Cleveland Police said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Two serving police officers in the marked vehicle and five members of the public travelling in the Passat were pronounced dead at the scene after the crash at 3.39am on Saturday. The officers were named as constables Matthew Blades (37) and Tom Clough (38).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Police have also formally identified all occupants of the Volkswagen and have offered their families specialist support. It is believed they were all males in their teens, the BBC reported.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) opened an investigation into the circumstances leading to the crash in South Bank after a mandatory referral from the force.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Officers from Cleveland Police spotted a suspicious vehicle and a pursuit began before the car travelled on to the A66 and collided with a police car, the watchdog said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">The A66 was closed in both directions between Normanby Road and Church Lane in Eston.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/crime-law\/2026\/08\/22\/teenagers-killed-on-m9-regarded-as-among-most-prolific-and-dangerous-joyriders-countrywide\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Teenagers killed on M9 regarded as among most prolific and dangerous joyriders countrywideOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Police officers manned both ends of the cordon and the crash site was not visible from the road closures.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">A large white tent was erected over the scene, with multiple emergency service vehicles around.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Police have put into effect a drone exclusion zone around the scene of the collision.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Cleveland chief constable Victoria Fuller said officers Matthew Blades and Tom Clough died in the crash on the A66.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Reading a statement outside the force\u2019s headquarters in Middlesbrough on Saturday afternoon, she said: \u201cAt 3.39am this morning, a Volkswagen Passat that was travelling the wrong way down the A66 has collided with a marked Cleveland Police armed response vehicle, which was travelling on the correct side of the road.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cTragically, 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Fuller also said the members of the public inside the Volkswagen have been formally identified.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cFormal identification has now taken place for the occupants of the Volkswagen Passat and specialist family liaison officers are being deployed to support the bereaved families, we also have support in place for our officers and staff who have been affected by today\u2019s tragic events,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cAs is mandatory following any death connected to a police incident, we have referred the matter to the Independent Office for Police Conduct and are fully co-operating with their investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cWhilst this investigation is ongoing, and out of respect for all those who have lost loved ones, I would strongly urge people to avoid speculation and respect the privacy of the families.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">British prime minister Andy Burnham said he was \u201cdevastated\u201d to hear about the crash. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cDevastated to hear that two police officers have lost their lives while on duty in Cleveland this morning, as well as five members of the public,\u201d he posed on X.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cMy thoughts are with the families and loved ones of everyone involved, and with everyone at Cleveland Police.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThank you to the emergency services responding in incredibly difficult circumstances. I would urge people to avoid speculation at this time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">UK home secretary Shabana Mahmood said the crash was \u201cdevastating\u201d, adding her thoughts were with all those affected.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">Anna Turley, Labour MP for the Redcar constituency where the crash happened, said the A66 would remain closed in both directions between Normanby Road and Church Lane, and urged the public to avoid the area and use alternative routes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph b-it-article-body__interstitial-link\">[\u00a0<a aria-label=\"Open related story\" class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishtimes.com\/ireland\/2026\/08\/17\/wrong-way-motorway-driving-young-men-chase-social-media-likes-and-exploit-garda-rules\/\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Wrong-way motorway driving: M9 crash is latest incident as young men chase social media \u2018likes\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">She said: \u201cCleveland Police have confirmed that seven people have sadly lost their lives.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cTheir families and loved ones are now facing an unimaginable loss that will be felt forever.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cTwo of the seven people who have lost their lives were Cleveland Police officers, on duty serving our community.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cThey went to work to keep people safe and they should have come home to their families.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cTheir loss will be felt deeply by their loved ones, fellow officers and right across the communities they served.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cCleveland Police are investigating the accident, alongside the Independent Office for Police Conduct.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cIt is crucial that we respect that process and avoid speculation at this deeply painful time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph paywall \">\u201cI cannot begin to imagine how difficult this has been for the emergency services responding to such a devastating incident.\u201d \u2013 Press Association<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seven people, including two police officers, have died in a crash in northeast England in the early hours&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":601448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39,303],"class_list":["post-601447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=601447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/601447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/601448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=601447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=601447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=601447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}