Two armed response officers tragically died in the line of duty when their patrol car was hit head-on by teenage joyriders driving the wrong way on a major road.
PC Matthew Blades, 38, and PC Tom Clough, 37, were among seven people killed in the crash on the A66 at Middlesbrough yesterday.
The officers and the five occupants of a Volkswagen Passat were all declared dead at the scene.
Last night it emerged Makai Saddington, one of the teenagers killed in the crash, had posted a string of TikTok videos appearing to show him taking part in high-speed police chases.
Cleveland Police lowered flags to half-mast at their Middlesbrough headquarters in tribute to their fallen colleagues, with the force confirming the uniformed constables were driving their marked armed-response vehicle on the correct side of the A66 before the head-on crash with the ‘suspicious’ car at 3.39am.
Ring doorbell footage shows that, just three minutes earlier, the VW Passat was driven at speed through Middlesbrough’s streets before police halted the chase when the vehicle turned on to the A66 and into the path of the patrol car. It is understood the two officers who were killed were not part of the pursuit.
Since the crash, it has emerged that one of the joyriders, Mr Saddington, posted a string of TikTok clips seemingly showing him taking part in police chases in the months before his death. In one clip, filmed in May by a passenger and set to rap music, the 18-year-old is seen in an Audi being driven at speed through a housing estate with a police car’s blue lights
flashing in pursuit, before the vehicle veers across a grassy playing field in an apparent bid to shake off officers.
Another video on an account associated with him shows a green Nissan being driven around before it is set alight, while separate images posted elsewhere show him and a friend posing in cars wearing black balaclavas.
Makai Saddington, 18, was one of the teenagers killed in the A66 crash on Saturday
One video, posted in the last month, shows a high-speed police chase
In the same video, the camera pans to the back window to show the police chasing the vehicle
The clips reflect a trend of young men filming themselves being pursued by police at high speed, and posting the clips on social media in pursuit of views and likes. The crash comes just days after five teenagers died in a head-on collision on a motorway in Ireland.
In that incident, the masked youngsters were in a stolen BMW which was travelling the wrong way down the M9 in County Kildare at 2am last Sunday.
Police had tried to pull the stolen car over, but it sped off the wrong way down the M9 to avoid a stinger device that had been deployed to stop the car.
The occupants of the other vehicle – three sisters and a seven-year-old boy – suffered serious injuries in the crash and remain in hospital. Yesterday, the mother of Mr Saddington’s one-year-old son posted on social media: ‘What am I supposed to do without ur daft phone calls and u torching (sic) me life’s so cruel.’
Other victims were named locally as Michael Ray, Theo Rae and Cole Worthy.
It is understood Mr Saddington and his companions had close links to the traveller community.
Householders in Lime Road, a mile from the crash site, told how they were woken by the noise as the stolen car ‘shot down’ the street followed by police cars.
Neil Hutchison, 47, said: ‘You could tell from the noise that they were travelling at high speed. Two cars went down the street and then a few seconds later there was a third, they were obviously going after another vehicle. It’s tragic that it ended with people dead.’
Chief Constable Victoria Fuller looked close to tears as she told how, together with her deputy David Felton, she had visited
Makai Saddington posted videos on his Tiktok of men in balaclavas driving cars at speed
This is the moment police are seen pursuing a car down a narrow road just minutes before seven people, including two police officers, were killed in a head-on smash
PC Blades and PC Clough’s distraught families to offer condolences and support ‘with this unimaginable loss’.
Paying tribute to the men, she said: ‘These were brave officers, protecting our communities and serving our residents, who didn’t return home to their families at the end of their shift.’
She went on to give a sense of the shock and disbelief felt by the officers’ colleagues, friends, and the community, adding: ‘This is an incredibly sad day for Cleveland.
‘The loss has been felt across our communities, by our police family, and by our partner agencies. My thoughts, and the thoughts of everybody here at Cleveland Police, are with their families, friends, colleagues, and loved ones at this incredibly difficult time.’
Lauren Somerville, chairman of the Cleveland Police Federation, said: ‘Words cannot describe the pain the Cleveland Police family is feeling today.
‘Our colleagues who should have been going home to their loved ones at the end of their shifts are not. That is just unfathomable.’
Local MP, Labour’s Anna Turley, said: ‘They went to work to keep people safe, and they should have come home to their families.
‘Their loss will be felt deeply by their loved ones, fellow officers and right across the communities they served.’
The five teenagers who died in the A66 crash have yet to be formally named, but Cleveland Police said all the bereaved families were being supported by specialist police family liaison officers.
In the eerie video captured by a home security camera, two police cars follow just seconds later, both with their lights flashing and sirens sounding
Police officers at the scene of a fatal crash involving a police car and a Volkswagen Passat on the A66 near Middlesbrough
Cleveland Police Chief Constable Victoria Fuller named the two police officers killed as PC Matthew Blades and PC Tom Clough during a police press conference on Saturday
A police cordon at the scene of a crash that killed two officers near Middlesbrough
It emerged that the Independent Office for Police Conduct opened an investigation into the circumstances surrounding the fatal crash around two hours and thirty minutes after it occurred. Chief Constable Fuller added: ‘While 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.’
Residents said they were woken by ‘a fleet of ambulances, fire engines and police cars’ racing to the scene. The North East Ambulance Service said 14 ambulances, specialist paramedics, a hazardous response team and a doctor from the Great North Air Ambulance Service attended. A spokesman said: ‘Sadly, despite the best efforts of everyone attending, a number of patients died at the scene.’
Prime Minister Andy Burnham thanked the emergency services for their response in ‘incredibly difficult circumstances’. Writing on X, he added: ‘My thoughts are with the families and loved ones of everyone involved.’
Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp said: ‘My thoughts are with the families and friends of those officers killed in the line of duty as well as those serving in Cleveland Police, the wider police family and all the emergency services who attended the scene.’
Craze that claimed five more young lives just a week ago
By Padraic Flanagan
It was feared last night that the A66 crash may be a copycat tragedy – thanks to the deadly TikTok craze that claimed the lives of five teenagers in a head-on motorway smash in the Irish Republic last week.
In that case, the youngsters, who were all wearing balaclavas in a stolen BMW travelling the wrong way down the country’s M9, died at the scene in Co Kildare in the early hours of Sunday.
The deaths of Joey Carthy, 15, Jack Kennedy, 17, Alex McCarthy, 16, Jeremy O’Brien, 18, and 17-year-old Kamil Pustkowski led to public fury at social media platforms after it emerged that the teenagers were filming themselves in the car.
That anger intensified on Thursday when TikTok declined an invitation to appear before an Irish parliamentary committee on media to discuss the latest craze of posting videos of people driving the wrong way down motorways.
Sisters Ella Hendricken, who is in her 20s, and Niamh and Alma Kinsella, in their 30s, as well as Alma’s seven-year-old son, Yemi, are being treated in hospital for serious injuries after their Hyundai was hit by the BMW.
The innocent victims, from Graiguecullen, Co Carlow, were on their way to Dublin to fly out for a family wedding in the UK when the teens smashed into their car. Three of the five teens killed in the M9 tragedy were buried on Friday. Two more funerals are due to take place today and on Tuesday.
Videos featuring youngsters in stolen cars trying to bait police into high-speed chases have become a macabre trend.
Mary Aiken, a professor of forensic cyber-psychology at the University of East London, told The Guardian: ‘While driving, they’re simultaneously filming and capturing content for posting later or live streaming. They have one foot in the real world and one foot in cyberspace They’re thinking about the likes… about kudos.’
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