A funeral has been held for Makai Saddington, 18, the third young person from the fatal A66 crash to be laid to rest, following a dispute over schools closing early for earlier funerals linked to the tragedy. He was one of five men who died alongside two police officers when a car travelled the wrong way on the A66 near Middlesbrough last month, in a case that has drawn national political attention after Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch criticised the government for allowing schools to shut for the funerals.

Saddington, alongside Cole Robert Worthy, 17, Theo Rae, 17, Michael Robert Cahill, 23, and Jakub Matusiak, 23, died at the scene on 22 August, along with PC Matthew Blades, 37, and PC Tom Clough, 38. Mourners gathered from 11.20am at Teesside Crematorium for Saddington's service, arriving behind a horse-drawn white carriage, though no schools closed early for this funeral unlike for Rae's and Matusiak's services in preceding days. It later emerged Saddington had been awaiting trial on charges of racially abusing and assaulting police officers, with Badenoch calling the school closures "obscene" and accusing Education Secretary Lucy Powell of allowing "gang violence to dictate the lives of law-abiding citizens".