Accident follows two similar crashes in Ireland where police highlighted a social media trend of driving in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n
By Anadolu, AP, Reuters and The Associated Press<\/p>\n
Published On 22 Aug 202622 Aug 2026<\/p>\n
Seven people, including two police officers, have died in a head-on collision during a pursuit, after a vehicle driving down the wrong side of a major road hit a police car in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n
All occupants of both vehicles were pronounced dead at the scene near Middlesbrough in northeast England on Saturday, according to the Cleveland Police.<\/p>\n
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A total of 12 people have been killed in less than a week in separate accidents involving cars driving on the wrong side of the road in the UK and Ireland, as a similar collision occurred in Dublin on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The Cleveland Police said five members of the public were travelling along the wrong side of the road in a Volkswagen Passat when it collided with a marked police vehicle heading in the correct direction at around 3:39am (02:39 GMT).<\/p>\n
Authorities are investigating the exact circumstances of the crash but said they understood that officers had begun a pursuit when they sighted a \u201csuspicious vehicle\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is an incredibly sad day for Cleveland,\u201d Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller said.<\/p>\n
The police force said it had formally identified the passengers in the Volkswagen Passat and was contacting their families.<\/p>\n
Fuller named the two dead officers as police constables Matthew \u2060Blades, 37, and Tom Clough, 38, describing \u2060them as \u201cbrave officers \u2026 who didn\u2019t return home to their families at the end of their shift\u201d.<\/p>\n