Twelve arrested over A66 wrong-way crash: Nine men and three women held after seven died including two police officers – as force probes second car ‘ramming properties’
Twelve people have been arrested as police investigate a crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough in which seven people died, including two police officers. PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38, were killed early on Saturday when a Volkswagen Passat, travelling the wrong way after being pursued by other officers, hit their patrol car head-on. The case has drawn national attention after it emerged some of the young men who died had posted TikTok videos appearing to show them driving recklessly and being chased by police, fuelling concerns about a social media trend of provoking pursuits for online views.
The nine men and three women arrested, aged between 19 and 61, face suspected offences ranging from firearms possession to participating in an organised crime group. The five occupants of the Volkswagen who died were named as Michael Robert Cahill, 23, Jacob Matusiak, 23, Makai Saddington, 18, Theo Rae, 17, and Cole Robert Worthy, 17, four of whom had previous convictions; police say there is no evidence the filming was done specifically for TikTok. A family in the other vehicle, three women and a seven-year-old boy travelling to the airport for a holiday, were seriously injured. Prime Minister Andy Burnham condemned those glorifying dangerous driving online, and Downing Street said it had raised the issue with social media platforms, days after five teenagers died in a similar wrong-way crash in Co. Kildare, Ireland.
- Twelve arrested after A66 crash killed seven, including two police officers
- Wrong-way driver fled police pursuit before fatal head-on collision
- Dead teens' TikTok videos showed reckless driving, prompting government condemnation
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Twelve people have been arrested after a crash on the A66 near Middlesbrough killed seven people, including two police officers, PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough. The crash happened after a car being pursued by police travelled the wrong way along the road and hit the officers' patrol vehicle head-on. All five people in that car also died.
The story has gained wider attention because some of those who died had reportedly posted videos online appearing to show risky driving and being chased by police, raising questions about whether such content is encouraging dangerous pursuits for social media attention. Those arrested face a range of possible offences, and police are also looking into a separate incident involving cars being used to ram properties.
The case matters both because of the scale of loss of life, including two serving police officers, and because it has fed into a wider debate about online content glorifying dangerous driving, discussed at government level and echoing a similar fatal wrong-way crash in Ireland days earlier.